September 15, 2014, Trenton New Jersey
Statement by: James L. Martin, Chairman, 60 Plus Association
The 60 Plus Association, on behalf of more than seven million seniors and hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country, and over 200,000 seniors here in the Garden State, thank most sincerely members of the state legislature from both parties, who are acting in a truly bi-partisan spirit, to deal with two of the most unpopular and unfair of all taxes the state estate and inheritances taxes.
New Jersey has the potential to become the 33rd state to be free of a death tax. The bottom line when it comes to death taxes in New Jersey, it’s not a tax cut for the rich, it very much affects the middle class. With the lowest tax exemption in the country for the estate tax and a second inheritance tax on individuals who inherit property from a loved one, it is easy to see why Forbes named New Jersey as a place “Where not to die in 2015.” It is so unheard of to have two death taxes in a single state, only one other state even dares to do it.
Over the past few years, we’ve made great progress, in repealing death taxes in states across the country, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Indiana have all passed laws repealing their death taxes. It is obvious why so many people have moved out of New Jersey to places like Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina, places with no estate or inheritance taxes. It is very easy for an individual to move across a border to save their loved ones their inheritance.
In the upcoming Presidential races several potential candidates for the Republican nomination have made efforts to repeal state and the federal estate tax. Governor Kasich in Ohio repealed his state’s estate tax, Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted for repeal of the estate tax. Not only have Republicans been fighting against death taxes, so have potential Democratic nominees for President, Governor Cuomo of New York and Governor O’Malley of Maryland have both signed legislation to decrease the number of individuals forced to pay the death tax.
While I’m credited with re-naming the estate tax the “death tax”, truth be told, Ronald Reagan said it earlier, but even the Great Communicator was not the first. I do take pride in fighting state by state and at the federal level to ensure that death is not a taxable event.
Again, here is a truly bi-partisan opportunity for New Jersey to work together to repeal a pair of tax that cuts across philosophical lines, with many liberals and conservatives supporting total repeal, along with better than 70% of the voting public. It’s a terrible set of taxes that do more harm than good.
I quote USC law professor, Edward McCaffrey, who testified years ago to repeal the estate tax. McCaffrey is a self-described “unrequited liberal”, who said that this is a tax that “liberals should love to hate.” His point being that by leaving the estate tax with its rightful heirs, one of several good things will occur; money would be invested in start-up businesses or used to expand existing businesses, that such activity would create more jobs, thus more workers paying more taxes.
