[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 19, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S2571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                FAMILY HERITAGE PRESERVATION ACT OF 1997

 Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, as a cosponsor of S. 75, the Family 
Heritage Preservation Act, I urge my colleagues to support the 
immediate passage of this measure before more family businesses and 
farms are lost.
  They say the only things that are certain in life are death and 
taxes. The Government has done a perverse job of combining the two in 
the Federal estate and gift taxes and the tax on generation-skipping 
transfers, known as the death taxes. These are the taxes assessed on 
assets passed from one generation to another, such as family 
businesses, ranches, and farms. The tax rate starts at 37 percent and 
quickly rises to a whopping 55 percent, often forcing the liquidation 
of assets just to pay the tax.
  S. 75, introduced by Senator Kyl, will repeal the death taxes. It is 
clear that these taxes do more harm than good, raising only 1 percent 
of Federal revenues but consuming 8 percent of annual savings. What's 
more, enforcement and compliance with these taxes takes up 65 cents for 
each dollar collected. The effects of the taxes on the economy are 
equally stark: Over an 8-year period without the taxes, the gross 
domestic product would have been $80 billion higher and 228,000 more 
jobs would have been created.
  These death taxes punish hard work and wealth accumulation and drive 
many family businesses into the ground by forcing them to sell assets 
to pay the tax. Family farms are hit especially hard--over 90 percent 
of farms and ranches are sole proprietorships or family partnerships, 
subjecting most to the taxes when ownership is transferred.
  I want to note that S. 75 is endorsed by a broad range of small 
business groups as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation. I thank 
Senator Kyl for his leadership on this issue.

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