\
  The most prestigious law school admissions discussion board in the world.
BackRefresh Options Favorite

What should be the estate tax rate?

Assume $4 million exemption in place
Irate Nibblets
  11/15/25
0 for estates up to 100mm
aquamarine institution new version
  11/15/25
All taxes shld be zero except maybe 5% for income and 5% sal...
Clear kitty cat native
  11/15/25
lol
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/15/25
50% plus a 200% tax on any fees paid to advisors to reduce o...
Cyan apoplectic windowlicker hell
  11/15/25
100%. When both John Rawls and Ayn Rand agree about somethin...
salmon preventive strike
  11/15/25
Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905...
aquamarine institution new version
  11/15/25
...
histrionic yellow newt friendly grandma
  11/15/25
the hardest park of an estate tax is exemptions for shit lik...
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/15/25
oh wow someone took a public policy class 30 years ago. farm...
aquamarine institution new version
  11/15/25
You're a fucking moron
flushed stirring property
  11/15/25
great counterargument doordasher tp
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/15/25
Well the thread is about estate tax and you go off and descr...
flushed stirring property
  11/15/25
ljl you hair splitting queer you have nothing intelligent to...
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/15/25
no u
flushed stirring property
  11/15/25
i'm done subsidizing "family farms". fuck those fu...
idiotic macaca hominid
  11/15/25
it's not a subsidy. im proposing a major tax increase with c...
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/15/25
I’ve got some bad news for you about America’s f...
Lascivious boistinker old irish cottage
  11/16/25
you're fixated on farms but that was just one example. the p...
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/17/25
$20m+ at 100% would never work in practice when charity grif...
yooper
  11/17/25
any effective estate tax would require eliminating all sorts...
SPATCHCOCK YOUR BIRD
  11/17/25
It's almost Lol funny that people still cite the farmland ex...
Spectacular Place Of Business
  11/15/25
there's so much retarded shit we subsidize based on the publ...
idiotic macaca hominid
  11/15/25
It should be the same as income taxes, if not higher. Se...
Spectacular Place Of Business
  11/15/25
100%. let rsf earn his money. the future generation's right ...
Wine clown
  11/15/25
...
rose bat shit crazy mexican
  11/15/25
0%. There is no rationale for an estate tax of any kind. The...
Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard
  11/15/25
You're Jewish right? Keeping the estate tax low is essential...
Irate Nibblets
  11/16/25
As they say, “the best way to fight Jewish economic he...
Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard
  11/16/25
(guy who didn't "get" Monopoly)
Wine clown
  11/16/25
What's the argument for allowing inheritance?
bonkers hospital
  11/16/25
There’s zero positive externalities to inheritance tax...
Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard
  11/16/25
I love the useful idiot argument “why bother taxing th...
Lascivious boistinker old irish cottage
  11/16/25
ESL? Taxing working shmucks has positive externalities; by t...
Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard
  11/16/25
I didn’t realize that you thought taxing activities wo...
Lascivious boistinker old irish cottage
  11/17/25
Why don’t you just become a successful investor or sta...
Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard
  11/17/25
It’s probably because taxes on capital gains aren&rsqu...
,..,,,,,,....,,,...,
  11/17/25
TITCR
Brindle pistol
  11/16/25
0 because now people just do trusts to avoid it anyway, whic...
big hot sweet tailpipe hall
  11/15/25
How do trusts cause problems?
Irate Nibblets
  11/16/25
they provide a means to multiple ends many of the multiple ...
silver set psychic
  11/16/25
Regardless of how you feel about the estate tax, can we all ...
salmon preventive strike
  11/15/25
Yes other countries don't have this magical cost basis chang...
hairraiser stag film
  11/16/25
This is an obvious change that should be made and it would b...
underhanded stage black woman
  11/16/25
i'd like to hear arguments for the other side, but i agree
silver set psychic
  11/16/25
110%
massive dilemma
  11/16/25
it should be mobile and change depending on number of childr...
vivacious ruddy step-uncle's house brethren
  11/16/25
eliminate estate tax and step up in basis and have deemed di...
Does it taste like tequila or failure?
  11/20/25
0%. but investments should be assumed to be liquidated at de...
peeface
  11/20/25


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 11:55 AM
Author: Irate Nibblets

Assume $4 million exemption in place

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49432994)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 11:57 AM
Author: aquamarine institution new version

0 for estates up to 100mm

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49432997)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 11:59 AM
Author: Clear kitty cat native

All taxes shld be zero except maybe 5% for income and 5% sales

That's it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433005)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 12:26 PM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican

lol

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433039)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 12:00 PM
Author: Cyan apoplectic windowlicker hell

50% plus a 200% tax on any fees paid to advisors to reduce or avoid it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433007)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 12:18 PM
Author: salmon preventive strike

100%. When both John Rawls and Ayn Rand agree about something, they are probably right.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433032)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 12:30 PM
Author: aquamarine institution new version

Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905, into a Jewish bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg, which was then the capital of the Russian Empire.[7] She was the eldest of three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum, a pharmacist, and Anna Borisovna (née Kaplan).[8] She was 12 when the October Revolution and the rule of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin disrupted her family's lives. Her father's pharmacy was nationalized,[9] and the family fled to Yevpatoria in Crimea, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War.[10] After graduating from high school there in June 1921,[11] she returned with her family to Petrograd, as Saint Petersburg was then named,[e] where they faced desperate conditions, occasionally nearly starving.[13]



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433045)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 4:25 PM
Author: histrionic yellow newt friendly grandma



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433644)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 12:30 PM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican

the hardest park of an estate tax is exemptions for shit like farms that are worth a lot but don't generate a ton of money. also bona fide family heirlooms.

putting that stuff aside, per child: $0-$5m tax free, $5m - $20m income tax rate rate, $20m+ 100%.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433046)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 12:40 PM
Author: aquamarine institution new version

oh wow someone took a public policy class 30 years ago. farms that dont generate money.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433067)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 4:57 PM
Author: flushed stirring property

You're a fucking moron

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433737)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 5:00 PM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican

great counterargument doordasher tp

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49433753)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:26 PM
Author: flushed stirring property

Well the thread is about estate tax and you go off and describe an inheritance tax.

Very low IQ behavior IMO.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434061)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:53 PM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican

ljl you hair splitting queer you have nothing intelligent to contribute. just drive by midwit insults

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434125)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:55 PM
Author: flushed stirring property

no u

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434129)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:58 PM
Author: idiotic macaca hominid

i'm done subsidizing "family farms". fuck those fucking faggots

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434137)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 7:28 PM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican

it's not a subsidy. im proposing a major tax increase with carve outs so gc doesnt turn bona fide family farms into sheetrock condos when the patriarch dies.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434218)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 11:33 AM
Author: Lascivious boistinker old irish cottage

I’ve got some bad news for you about America’s family farms. But yes, let’s write a tax policy that coincidentally aligns with the interests of our most loathsome capitalists based on the hypothetical needs of a family that owns a small $10M farm with no cashflow, so they can keep running it for generations of ever more feckless heirs. That’s how we structure a vibrant economy and solve problems like housing affordability.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435417)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 17th, 2025 9:13 AM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican

you're fixated on farms but that was just one example. the point is that there needs to be some carveout for bona fide private business to prevent them from being nationalized and sold to gc every generation.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49437556)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 17th, 2025 8:19 PM
Author: yooper (πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡±)

$20m+ at 100% would never work in practice when charity grifts and the like exist. just create a charity and put your kids in charge. they receive massive salaries paid for by your donations.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49439439)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 17th, 2025 8:27 PM
Author: SPATCHCOCK YOUR BIRD (gunneratttt)

any effective estate tax would require eliminating all sorts of tax avoidance mechanisms like this. but it's no different with income tax. there are plenty of ways you can avoid a taxable event with bullshit like this.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49439456)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:37 PM
Author: Spectacular Place Of Business

It's almost Lol funny that people still cite the farmland example, which they've done for 50 years.

In 50 years no one has thought, "Oh what if we put in the bill that you could pass 1,000 acres to farmland tax free to any descendent who worked that farmland more than 500 hours in their lifetime."

Instead everyone just throws their hands up and says "It's impossible - guess we should just let people inherit vast sums of wealth untaxed."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434083)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:59 PM
Author: idiotic macaca hominid

there's so much retarded shit we subsidize based on the public romanticizing small yeoman farmers. fuck them, it's a bad way to run society.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434138)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 6:39 PM
Author: Spectacular Place Of Business

It should be the same as income taxes, if not higher.

Seems antithetical to America that we tax a schoolteacher making $50,000 a year but not a kid who gets a $3 mm inheritance.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434091)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 7:01 PM
Author: Wine clown

100%. let rsf earn his money. the future generation's right to meritocracy exceeds the current generation's entitlement to pass on wealth

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434143)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 7:44 PM
Author: rose bat shit crazy mexican



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434272)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 8:51 PM
Author: Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard

0%. There is no rationale for an estate tax of any kind. The only people who want it are either (1) bitter and jealous of someone benefitting from their family success, or (2) retarded policy “wonks” who want to redistribute wealth to adhere to their personal views of “fairness” and “earning” something.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434453)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 1:04 AM
Author: Irate Nibblets

You're Jewish right? Keeping the estate tax low is essential to maintaining Jewish power.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434914)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 8:45 AM
Author: Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard

As they say, “the best way to fight Jewish economic hegemony is to systematically expropriate everyone’s wealth and funnel it into Israel and minority gibs.”



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435152)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 11:22 AM
Author: Wine clown

(guy who didn't "get" Monopoly)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435399)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 12:18 PM
Author: bonkers hospital

What's the argument for allowing inheritance?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435505)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 2:02 PM
Author: Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard

There’s zero positive externalities to inheritance taxes; they aren’t effective at inhibiting dynasties and they don’t generate enough money to finance government. Inheritance taxes are anti individual meritocracy. By inhibiting the transfer of wealth between generations via property and money, you incentivize tribalistic croneyism and collusion. See for example the revolutions in China and Cuba, where 100% of wealth was expropriated from the elites but the elites’ descendants were back to being the elites again within one or two generations.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435805)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 4:36 PM
Author: Lascivious boistinker old irish cottage

I love the useful idiot argument “why bother taxing the rich? it won’t raise very much money.” Strangely the same argument is never applied for my benefit as a working loser, although I’m pretty sure the taxes I pay are also insufficient to fund the entire government.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49436098)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 10:09 PM
Author: Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard

ESL? Taxing working shmucks has positive externalities; by taking away your income you now have to generate more economic value to stay afloat.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49436941)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 17th, 2025 8:14 AM
Author: Lascivious boistinker old irish cottage

I didn’t realize that you thought taxing activities would encourage them. Why don’t we also put a high tax on successful investments and business formation to get the same effect?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49437439)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 17th, 2025 9:45 AM
Author: Chocolate Shrine Haunted Graveyard

Why don’t you just become a successful investor or start businesses rather than continuing to work and pay your high income taxes?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49437610)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 17th, 2025 8:08 PM
Author: ,..,,,,,,....,,,...,

It’s probably because taxes on capital gains aren’t high enough, so I can make enough after-tax income on my lame portfolio. If you boost capital gains taxes to 50% that might unlock my creativity and risk appetite. It’s called an externality, btw.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49439423)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 2:26 PM
Author: Brindle pistol

TITCR

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435840)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 8:53 PM
Author: big hot sweet tailpipe hall

0 because now people just do trusts to avoid it anyway, which causes a lot of societal problems.

It would be better to just pass down cash directly and not have trusts. And if the heirs are retarded and blow all the cash, that's actually a good thing.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434467)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 1:05 AM
Author: Irate Nibblets

How do trusts cause problems?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434915)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 4:44 PM
Author: silver set psychic

they provide a means to multiple ends

many of the multiple ends are things that could be done in different ways

many are things that don't benefit society

tax avoidance, secrecy, deadhand control, probate avoidance

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49436128)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 15th, 2025 9:50 PM
Author: salmon preventive strike

Regardless of how you feel about the estate tax, can we all agree that the step up in cost basis is completely moronic and serves no rational purpose other than to make the RSF's of the world even richer? If you don't want to sell your family farm or business, fine, there is no tax liability. But we shouldn't allow billionaires to borrow against their assets until they die and then let their kids avoid all the capital gains taxes.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49434605)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 8:51 AM
Author: hairraiser stag film

Yes other countries don't have this magical cost basis change upon death, it doesn't really make sense in this day and age when cost basis is quite trackable

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435159)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 9:14 AM
Author: underhanded stage black woman

This is an obvious change that should be made and it would be very simple to track and implement. Stepped up basis is a huge scam

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435179)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 4:49 PM
Author: silver set psychic

i'd like to hear arguments for the other side, but i agree

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49436149)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 5:19 AM
Author: massive dilemma

110%

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435007)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 16th, 2025 6:04 AM
Author: vivacious ruddy step-uncle's house brethren

it should be mobile and change depending on number of children the inheritance is split in practice and on average theoretically so nobody can be royalty

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49435029)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 20th, 2025 3:26 PM
Author: Does it taste like tequila or failure?

eliminate estate tax and step up in basis and have deemed disposition on death, allow for automatically granted 10 year payment plan at 5% interest for the tax liability if opted into (deals with the forced liquidity issue), first payment due 12 months from date of death. gifts above annual exclusion are also a deemed disposition but no payment plan option. maybe grant a small exemption, like $1MM, or grant an exemption only to select assets, like primary residence and closely held family businesses.

if not willing to be that radical, at minimum eliminate GRATs, eliminate grantor trusts if considered outside the taxable estate (which will eliminate the sale to IDGT strategy which is especially ridiculous when coupled with a SCIN) and eliminate or severely curtail valuation discounts. those three changes alone will shut the door on 80%-90% of the tax planning techniques available.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49447298)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 20th, 2025 3:29 PM
Author: peeface

0%. but investments should be assumed to be liquidated at death and capital gains tax charged against them.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5798433&forum_id=2id.#49447306)