Family Businesses Remain Under Threat Until Death Tax Repealed Permanently
The federal inheritance tax, death tax, or "estate tax," affects all Americans, especially small-business owners. The death tax creates a disincentive to expand a business, create jobs, and far too often, literally taxes family businesses right out of the family. It is important to note that much of the cost of the death tax occurs before the tax itself is levied. The threat of the tax actually forces small-business owners to pay for expensive estate planning if they want to keep their business in the family. Congress knows how burdensome the federal death tax can be -- the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 reduces death tax rates and increases the exemption every year until the tax is repealed entirely during 2010. But Congress didn't finish the job -- the death tax returns at its full 55 percent in 2011! President Bush has repeatedly called on Congress to make permanent death-tax repeal and other tax relief from the tax bill of 2001. Until the death tax is permanently repealed, it will continue to kill small businesses. That's why NFIB leads the fight against the death tax as the co-director of the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition, a group of businesses, trade associations and people committed to permanent repeal of the death tax.
