How Tax Reform Is Like Gun Control
I think the lesson is that we all should get out of our bubbles more. If you are in favor of very strict gun control, you will probably learn more useful things by talking to gun enthusiasts and reading their magazines. Same principle if you are interested in getting the wealthy to pay more taxes. You might also find that your notions of what people who disagree with you actually think are different from what you project.
How Wealth Accumulators Can Use Trusts To Avoid State Income Tax
When you are talking about large wealth, there are of course a great number of non-tax considerations, but I’m not going to be able to help you much there. Other than to tell you based on what I have observed through my career it is about fifty-fifty whether inheritance is good or bad for people, which is a little demoralizing for estate planning.
As to the lawyers who work on these issues, I would observe that there is a danger that they can get into ruts. They may be attached to the state that they practice in. Clearly, that narrows your option. Also planning in this area tends to be focused on transfer taxes which is really big money for large estates, but not something that happens every year. Income tax planning can get short shrift sometimes or the income tax implications of estate planning techniques can be overlooked.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.