7 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: On Rights of Inheritance - why high inheritance taxes are justified
And what is my inheritance is a small business like a restaurant? What if I have worked there my whole life to build the business, but it was owned by my parents?
Now what if the same scenario, but before my parents does, they gave me ownership of the business as part of my compensation? Like I earned 5% of the business every year, so 20 years in, I own 100%?
My parents transferred ownership to me in both situations, and I performed the same job in both, it was just a matter of how I obtained ownership of the business.
Comment by as-well at 22/01/2020 at 20:57 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This paper is much more about the principle, not the *Realpolitik* of inheritance taxes. Most proposals in actual politics have a fairly high starting point. Italy for example has 1 million; anything below is not taxed.
In philosophical terms, I don't think there really is much of a problem here. Paying your salary partially in stock is fair game, so presumably this would be much less of a problem. Also, the paper actually adresses this (I don't think the argument is quite convincing):
Alternatively, it might be held that it is desirable that certain property be kept in the family. Inheritance of, say, farmland might be endorsed in order to incentivise the kind of improvement of the land that may take generations. Having said that, in situations such as this, we may find that we are once again talking less about thoroughgoing moral rights to inherit that should be recognised by law as something more akin to a permission to inherit that is generated by law, or even a kind of duty to inherit—and anyway, as Halliday points out, “[i]n many regions where the inheritance tax debate has substance, the family farm is becoming a bit of a myth” (Halliday 2018, 170); where it is companies that do what family firms used to do, arguments for preserving inheritance that draw on this kind of consideration weaken.
Comment by Zeal514 at 22/01/2020 at 18:07 UTC
-3 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Yea. Its a tough scenario. I am a fan of inheritance taxes, when you did not build the buisness or fortune. People should not start off with a million in the bank, as I dont think its healthy, but if you were instilled with great work ethics and helped build it yourself, well, thats a different story. Its deffi ately a complex issue.