'Lessons'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
inheritance has always been a default assumption of western culture, hasn't it?
Heh. At the moment, I'm looking at inheriting a whole lotta debt and not much else.
ETA: That was just a sidenote to the discussion. Don't have time right now to comment on the actual estate tax dilemma.
OK, I'm not an expert on the inheritance tax. So what really bugs me is that this is yet another tax cut that will only help the very wealthy (how many major tax cuts have there been in the last 5 years that have gone mostly to the wealthy? Four? Five? I've lost count). Also, I'm scared as to what's gonna happen with the huge budget deficits we're having and will continue to have for a long time, and repealing the estate tax will make things worse.
So, wait, I'm sorry -- unrealized gains are taxed in the inheritance tax? That is, I'd get taxed on the full current value of my parents' investments?
Also, I'm scared as to what's gonna happen with the huge budget deficits we're having and will continue to have for a long time, and repealing the estate tax will make things worse.
But if allow the rich people to keep their money, it will magically trickle down. Or so I've been told.
I'm looking at inheriting a whole lotta debt
That part's totally not fair¹. What steps can one take (other than eliminating it) to prevent your descendants from being in that position?
¹: Okay, it's totally fair. It's just not nice.
It's the trap of the middle and working classes, I think. Owning property offsets it, but when one's parents (like mine) got divorced in their fifties and had to get brand new 30 year mortgages...well...
I acrually have expectations of some kind of inheritance from my grandfather's trust. I get these statements from my grandmother's lawyer every so often detailing what's going on with the estate, but I don't pay close attention because as far as I'm concerned, that's her money. If there's enough left when she passes on to be taxed, so be it. If there's nothing much left, that's cool too.
You don't actually inherit the debt, unless you also inherit something of value, because if it is all debt, there is no estate. If you want [thing of value] then you have to pay off the debt. Otherwise, the things of value are sold off to satisfy the debt.
One of my grandmother's has a reverse mortgage on her house to be able to afford to live, so the bank will own it when she passes on. My other gram has no property (she lives with us currently) and no assets.
ETA: Cindy, you do when it comes to credit cards etc.
acruallyVery cool typo, because given the subject, it could be just a new, useful word.