[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 45 (Friday, April 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E661-E662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                DEATH TAX REPEAL PERMANENCY ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DONALD A. MANZULLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 13, 2005

  Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 8, the 
Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005. As Chairman of the Small 
Business Committee, I've heard horror story after horror story from 
small business owners who worry about the future of their small 
business because their heirs will not be able to pay the death tax and 
also continue the business. Why should they spend countless thousands 
of dollars for life insurance premiums, attorney and accountant fees 
just to plan to pay the death tax? Those monies are better invested in 
their small businesses. Raising the cap is just a band-aid that

[[Page E662]]

postpones the inevitable decision to abolish the death tax once and for 
all.
  Permanent repeal of the death tax will protect millions of small and 
family-owned businesses from the return of this devastating tax. I have 
seen the effects of the death tax firsthand in my district. Before I 
came to Congress in 1992, I practiced law in a rural county in northern 
Illinois. I was there at the estate sale when the mom and her kids had 
to sell off half the family farm because they couldn't afford to pay 
the death tax after dad died. All they wanted to do was continue on 
with their lives, work the farm, and put food on the table. But in 
their most vulnerable time, after they had lost their dad and husband, 
after they had spent their lives paying taxes, the government came to 
them and said, ``We want more!'' And their American Dream was crushed.
  Despite serious estate planning efforts, 70 percent of small and 
family-owned businesses do not survive through the second generation 
and 87 percent do not make it through the third generation. In fact, 9 
out of every 10 successors whose family business failed within three 
years of the owner's death said death taxes played a major role in 
their company's demise.
  The death tax is one of the most archaic and destructive taxes to 
small businesses in our tax code. The death tax discourages savings and 
investment, reduces wages and job creation, and is a leading cause of 
dissolution for thousands of small businesses. This is an immoral tax. 
It's time to once and for all permanently do away with the death tax 
that confiscates the hard work and savings of the most productive and 
important part of the U.S. economy, our small businesses.

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