The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon
July 19, 2000

Burying the 'Death Tax'

Clinton should forget his veto threat of estate-tax
Phaseout and put end to unfair mix of death and taxes

Death we accept. Taxes, too. But death and taxes or taxing after death is another matter.

It's unfair for a surplus-running federal government to scoop up what an individual had accumulated over a lifetime of hard work - after that individual had passed on, after the individual had paid federal taxes on the money at several levels. It's also awfully unseemly, having the Internal Revenue Service follow a taxpayer into the grave.

The deceased won't mind - not that we know of, at least - but his or her survivors will. The upshot can be brutal from both a financial and familial standpoint. Beyond the basic unfairness of having to pony at tax rates as high as 55 percent when mom or dad dies, Congress heard plenty of stories from folks who lose small businesses or family farms because they couldn't come up with the cash. Oh, if you're wealthy enough to hire lawyers and consultants you can make arrangements to protect your treasure. This explains why the percentage of estates paying the inheritance tax (2 percent) is not larger. But not every heir can foot such bills.

The number of individuals who are eligible to pay the current inheritance tax - estates above $675,000 for individuals and $1.3 million for couples, farms and small businesses - has skyrocketed in recent years, thanks to the stock-market and real-estate booms. And pending adjustments in the inheritance-tax thresholds won't really help.

Better to phase out the whole thing, which is just what the Senate did early Friday in the "death tax" elimination bill - with Oregon Republican Gordon Smith and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden responsibly supporting - and the House had done earlier.

What President Clinton should now do is reconsider his veto threat and sign the bill. As Sen. William Roth, R-Del, said in a crisp case for the end of the death tax, "No family, no farm and no business should have to worry about this sort of thing."