It is high time that federal and state governments
finish eliminating all taxes on wealthy persons. Perhaps 90% of this has been completed in recent decades, but remaining taxes on income, capital gains, realty, and estates still cause our most prestigious and most honored people and corporations enormous personal
anguish, not to mention accounting and legal fees.
The elimination of these taxes would not only ease the minds
of our most productive persons, but would also achieve desirable policy goals.
Tax considerations would no longer distort their allocations of capital.
Estate planning would no longer be contorted to minimize inheritance taxes. Corporate
compensation could take more productive forms if freed from the contortions required for the sake of tax minimization. And real property could be put to owners’
creative uses, instead of being forced into intensive use.
Another benefit would be a reduction of enforcement expense, or at least a
reallocation letting agents of the fisc pursue more easily adjudged tax cheats.
Moreover, the elimination of taxes on the wealthy would reduce crime the same
way legalizing marijuana does.
Some might object that the elimination of these taxes would
starve governments of the money they need to operate effectively. At the
moment, however, it is almost entirely the wealthy who block all tax increases.
If they are freed from taxes, opposition to tax increases would sharply
diminish and necessary increases could finally take place.
Another objection is that the elimination of taxes,
especially estate taxes, would cement the upper class into place. But that is
unlikely, given the high-spending propensities of rich children and the
opportunities they have to lose money on investments. Even if it does take
place, what exactly is wrong with that? England has enjoyed the noblesse oblige
of its wealthy for centuries. If people become secure in their possessions,
they can more readily afford to be generous and kind to others.
A third objection would be that eliminating taxes might
eliminate charitable donations from the wealthy, and many good causes depend on
those donations. But to a significant extent the private donations that benefit
from tax favors reflect the particular interests of their donors, rather than
public needs. If charitable organizations were to lose their private support,
they would have to pick up public support, which would only be available for
organizations truly operating in the public interest.
In conclusion, let us eliminate all taxes on our wealthy persons. Everyone would benefit.
