On behalf of its 600,000
members nationwide, the small business group
NFIB today praised U.S. Senators who voted to
pass bipartisan legislation that would finally
bury the dreaded death tax.
The bill
would cut the top 55 percent estate tax rate in
2001, then gradually phase out all other rates,
with full repeal coming in 2010.
This is
a resounding victory for thousands of small
business owners across the country who for
decades have fought to liberate themselves from
an unfair and punitive tax on their life's work,
said NFIB Senior Vice President Dan Danner. This
tax penalizes successful small business owners,
restrains economic expansion, and imperils the
uniquely American opportunity for men and women
to build companies that they can pass on to
future generations.
As one of the two
co-founders of the Family Business Estate Tax
Coalition, NFIB has fought on the front lines
for a full repeal of the death tax for years.
NFIB has dubbed the tax the most unfair tax of
all, literally taxing businesses right out of
families.
In June, a bipartisan majority
in the House of Representatives overwhelmingly
passed death tax repeal legislation, H.R. 8, by
a vote of 279 to 136. The Senate's bipartisan
vote of 59 to 39 today now sends the bill to the
President, who has threatened to veto the
measure. Danner cautioned the Clinton
administration not to make good on that
threat.
NFIB strongly urges the President
to sign this vital bipartisan legislation for
small business owners and family farmers, said
Danner, noting a 1999 Wall Street Journal study
that found that complete abolition of the death
tax would result in 200,000 new jobs every year.
Another study found death tax compliance costs
as high as $25,000 per year.
A veto of
this important legislation would send the wrong
message about this administration's commitment
to job growth and economic expansion," Danner
said. "NFIB urges the President to join a
massive bipartisan coalition, and strong
bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate,
in finally sending this punitive and unfair tax
to its grave."
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