The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Economics => Topic started by: RobJohnson on August 25, 2010, 01:40:12 AM
-
(CNN) -- Want a hot tip about how to make a financial killing this year?
Die.
That's right. It sounds like a distasteful joke, but courtesy of the United States Congress, it's a gruesome reality.
Because of a hiccup in the convoluted tax laws, Americans who have done exceptionally well for themselves during their lives will be able to preserve an enormously greater percentage of their money, and thus be able to pass it on to their heirs, if they die before midnight on December 31.
The Journal ran a photo gallery of six prominent men who beat the system by dying this year: former TV host Art Linkletter, actor Dennis Hopper, Taco Bell founder Glen Bell, novelist Louis Auchincloss, real estate developer Walter Shorenstein and author J.D. Salinger.
The most-talked about beneficiary -- if you can call it that, which you probably shouldn't -- of this tax weirdness is George Steinbrenner, the late owner of the New York Yankees who died last month. Under the headline "Why Now Is a Great Time to Die," financial journalist Lauren Drell, who writes for AOL, calculated that by dying this year instead of next, Steinbrenner saved his relatives approximately $600 million
More (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/15/greene.death.taxes/index.html?iref=allsearch#fbid=cs7b8G_Ang4&wom=false)
How did this happen? :evillaugh: