Last Friday, June 9, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 8, the Death Tax Elimination Act. On behalf of the Tire Association of North America (TANA), I strongly urge you to support H.R. 8 when the Senate takes up the issue. While TANA would prefer immediate repeal of the estate tax, H.R. 8 is a viable way to achieve repeal by phasing out the burdensome tax over a 10-year period.

TANA represents about 4,000 members nationwide, the majority of which are small businesses with 60 or fewer employees. Elimination of the estate tax is their number one tax priority. Relief from the death tax is pro-business, pro-jobs, pro-family and pro-economy. One member had this to say upon hearing that the House passed H.R. 8:

"We must continue our efforts to see that the estate tax repeal gets done! Imagine a person like myself who worked all his life to build a business, and paid more than my fair share of taxes on the money I made, and when I pass on my family has to sell everything off in 13 months to pay the estate tax. Or I would have had to spend lots of money in advance to see that it was paid. In either case my estate was drastically reduced because I worked hard, invested wisely etc., etc.

Of all the ludicrous taxes this country has, this is the most unfair. I just wish there was a way to go back and reimburse the many people who were devastated by this tax."

--Ron Brutt, President, Brutt Tire & Auto Center, McKees Rocks, PA

The estate tax is an unreasonable burden on small businesses. I strongly urge you to support repeal of the estate tax through H.R. 8.

Sincerely,

Becky MacDicken
Director of Government Affairs

TANA is a 79-year-old Virginia-based trade group representing all sectors of the North American replacement tire market. TANA may be accessed on the Internet at www.tana.net