[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 97 (Thursday, July 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1394-E1395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NO TAXATION WITHOUT RESPIRATION

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                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 10, 1997

  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, taxes on inheritance ought 
to be abolished, and the sooner the better.
  In Congress, we are moving toward our goal of eliminating the tax on 
property and savings when inherited by descendants.
  Even though total elimination of the tax may take several years, we 
have already approved a measure to protect more Americans from the 
ravages of inheritance taxes.
  The tax, often called the death tax, currently attacks individual 
estates of more than

[[Page E1395]]

$600,000, and twice that for couples. I'm working hard in Congress to 
raise the threshold to $1 million then index that figure for inflation 
thereafter.
  The death tax is wrong, plain wrong. It comes at the wrong time and 
hurts the wrong people. It breaks up family farms and small family 
businesses. It robs families of the fruits of their labor and the 
earnings of their investments.
  For the Government, there is little value in the death tax since it 
brings in only a sliver of the Nation's revenues. Yet, it's very 
expensive to administer.
  The only people helped by the death tax are lawyers, accountants, and 
IRS tax agents. For example, the Center for the Study of Taxation found 
compliance and enforcement costs total 65 cents for every dollar 
collected.
  Every IRS field office maintains a separate death tax unit to deal 
with 380 pages of rules and laws associated with the tax. Federal 
courts are now backlogged with 10,000 estate-tax cases.
  Although led by Republicans, our death tax relief proposals enjoy 
bipartisan support. Finally, Congress is realizing that a pro-family, 
pro-agriculture, pro-business tax policy entails death tax relief.
  Taxing people after they die just doesn't seem fair. As I've often 
stated on the floor of the House, ``no taxation without respiration.''

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