It's not billionaire's deaths I'm worried about. It's corporations' immortality. Or, like a commenter says:
Quote:
(1) MOST small family businesses end up worth well over 1 million after they’ve been going for a few years, so the heirs often must liquidate the business to pay the death tax.[...]
(2) MANY family farms and ranches, although cash poor, are worth vast fortunes on paper due to the inflation of land value. Again, the heirs must often sell to pay the taxes, wrecking the family’s liveliehood. Too often the sold-off family farms are bought by developers or corporate megafarms. [...]
Corporate megafarms never lose their land to death taxes because CORPORATIONS DON’T DIE — only family farmers do.
(3) Finally, in real-estate inflated areas of the country (California, Florida, etc), even modest middle-class homes that were purchased for only $30,000-$50,000 decades ago, are often reassessed at 1-2 million. In these areas, hard working middlle-class families LOSE THEIR HOMES because of the death tax. [...]
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The commenter makes the case for the example (2), but the idea in (1) and (3) is practically the same. This tax favors a transferral of assets from middle-class entrepreneurial individuals to corporations, which, unlike individuals, do not die; additionally, when they do die (per liquidation) it is hard that they pay the full value of their debts, since they have limited liability. Corporations are less innovative than entrepreneurial individuals because they adopt hierarchical vices: therefore, this tax harms innovation and entrepreneurship of the individual, which is at the core of the generation of value and wealth for everyone else.