∅baMa∅ Tse Dung wrote:
The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon

Fiscal Policy: Many voters are looking forward to 2011, hoping a new
Congress will put the country back on the right track. But unless
something's done soon, the new year will also come with a raft of tax
hikes — including a return of the death tax — that will be real
killers.

Through the end of this year, the federal estate tax rate is zero —
thanks to the package of broad-based tax cuts that President Bush
pushed through to get the economy going earlier in the decade.

But as of midnight Dec. 31, the death tax returns — at a rate of 55%
on estates of $1 million or more. The effect this will have on
hospital life-support systems is already a matter of conjecture.

Resurrection of the death tax, however, isn't the only tax problem
that will be ushered in Jan. 1. Many other cuts from the Bush
administration are set to disappear and a new set of taxes will
materialize. And it's not just the rich who will pay.

The lowest bracket for the personal income tax, for instance, moves up
50% — to 15% from 10%. The next lowest bracket — 25% — will rise to
28%, and the old 28% bracket will be 31%. At the higher end, the 33%
bracket is pushed to 36% and the 35% bracket becomes 39.6%.

But the damage doesn't stop there.

The marriage penalty also makes a comeback, and the capital gains tax
will jump 33% — to 20% from 15%. The tax on dividends will go all the
way from 15% to 39.6% — a 164% increase.

Both the cap-gains and dividend taxes will go up further in 2013 as
the health care reform adds a 3.8% Medicare levy for individuals
making more than $200,000 a year and joint filers making more than
$250,000. Other tax hikes include: halving the child tax credit to
$500 from $1,000 and fixing the standard deduction for couples at the
same level as it is for single filers.

Letting the Bush cuts expire will cost taxpayers $115 billion next
year alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and $2.6
trillion through 2020.

I thought you guys were all about deficit reduction. You've already cut
services to the bone; not much else to do but make the fat cats pay more.

The whole point of the inheritance tax is to prevent family dynasties.
it should be 75%.