It's become painful to me to listen to most well-intentioned folks debate estate taxes and wealth inequality. So few understand what wahern describes above. The whole debate is a school of red herrings. European tax law is even more of a mess than the US in this regard; even if some practices are eventually ended here, whether in 10 years or 100 years, I have little doubt they will continue on unabated most everywhere else.
I agree it is important to understand the loopholes, but the debate is still important: regardless of which side you fall on, it is important whether society thinks it is just or unjust for wealth to be propegated indefinitely and exactly to one's heirs.
In the US we have a mixed bag of libertarians who think it just and egalitarians who think it unjust. If you ever want to see either the token estate tax ended or the loopholes closed, and not just indefinitely moan over the imperfect world we live in, you have to make your case. Arguing over the estate tax is a reasonable proxy: if you could actually convince people the estate tax was important and necessary, they would also be inclined to believe we should close the loopholes.
There is no such thing as "European tax law" as every European country has different tax system (i.e. some tax estate, some don't). Though some EU wide regulations apply. Furthermore, European countries are among the most equal countries by wealth in World[0], so it's not fair to to call it "red herring".
Interesting comments, wahern and nugget. Could you elaborate or point to some primary/secondary sources?
Control of the distribution of wealth and income is certainly a tricky, multi-faceted challenge that society had to face since the beginning of civilization, and certainly will have to face many a day.
> It's become painful to me to listen to most well-intentioned folks debate estate taxes and wealth inequality. So few understand what wahern describes above.
Can you talk us through what exactly it is that we misunderstand, and what the correction would be?
nugget was concurring with what the parent post said; that people don't understand that the wealth tax is irrelevant and that money is instead passed down via trusts that are designed so as not touched by the wealth tax.
