Federal Estate Tax Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Federal Estate Tax - Essay Example Through the history of mankind, there have been several social issues which fail to attain the justified attention in sociological research, despite the fact that nobody gravely questions their implication for society, and the inheritance of private wealth from one generation to the following forms one such crucial sociological issue in the modern time. An awareness of the fact that about 550 billion dollars, which is more than 4% of the American GNP, are transferred per annum in the United States also suggests why the bequest of wealth and the Federal Estate Tax forms some central topics of sociological scholarship. "Estate taxation, one of the crucial areas of conflict in the regulation of the transfer of property, has become a topic of substantial political debate in the United States in recent years, and this has also prompted scholarly interest in the issue... One of the more interesting questions about the estate tax is why it is such a controversial tax..." (Beckert, 522) In f act, a sociological analysis of the Federal Estate Tax provides the most effective conclusion on why the arguments against the death tax have a superior point against those in favor of it in the essential controversial debate of the day, and there are important research evidences suggesting that the death tax has several limitations from the sociological point of view. Commendable researches on the topic of the Federal Estate Tax have concluded on the various arguments for and against the law which ultimately point out that it creates several issues to the taxpayers and that the limitations of the law concerning the economy and the environment far surpass the latent advantages of the law. The strong protest against the death tax in the current circumstances has been the result of several economic, sociological, and political considerations which prove significant to the entire system of the society. The economic perspective on the question argues that the Federal Estate Tax holds back the accumulation of capital and the growth of the economy. Important economic assessments on the topic conclude that the estate tax proves to be most detrimental to the economic growth of the federation. The taxes on the transference of property reduce the capital value of the property and diminish the finds intended for the preservation of labor. Taxes such as the Fe deral Estate Tax are unthrifty taxes which may enhance the revenue of the government, but rarely contribute to the good of the people affected, and they prevent the distribution of the national capital in the way most beneficial to the community. "For the general prosperity there cannot be too much facility given to the conveyance and exchange of all kinds of property, as it is by such means that capital of every species is likely to find its way into the hands of those who will best employ it in increasing the productions of the country." (Ricardo, 108) Therefore, the economic arguments against the Federal Estate Tax substantiate the sociological arguments against the same. The fact that there have been significant moves in the Congress to permanently repeal the federal estate tax also point to the limitations of the tax. Though there are ongoing debates on the repeal of the death tax, it is often assessed at a higher rate on the accumulated savings of deceased persons