Should a citizen’s death continue to be a source of financial windfall to the government?

The debate on how to handle the upcoming demise and then resurrection of the federal estate tax continues to be waged.

Yesterday, the Citizens for Tax Justice came out in favor of retaining the estate tax at a relatively high level.  The following excerpts are from the organization’s report entitled Latest State-by-State Data Show Why Obama Should Scale Back His Proposal to Cut the Federal Estate Tax:

President-elect Barack Obama has proposed a change that would prevent the estate tax from disappearing in 2010, but which would also unnecessarily cut the estate tax below the level it would reach in years after 2010 if Congress simply does nothing. * * *

President-elect Barack Obama has proposed to make permanent the estate tax rules that will be in effect in 2009 under current law, including the $3.5 million per-spouse exemption. This would be an improvement in the sense that it would prevent the estate tax from disappearing. But it would be a regressive and costly giveaway to the very wealthiest families in America, because it would mean that the tax would affect even fewer estates than it does now.

Special thanks to Adam Hirsch (William and Catherine VanDercreek Professor of Law, Florida State University) for bringing this article to my attention.