HuffPost Quotes Beth Kaufman on Death Tax Impact on Family Businesses
Rep. Kristi Noem has repeatedly told the story about how the federal estate tax hurt her family’s business after her father died in a farming accident in 1994.
“A few months afterward, we got a letter from the IRS telling us we owed the Death Tax,” the South Dakota Republican wrote in a Fox News op-ed last month. “We were still reeling from the loss of the powerhouse in our family, and already, the government was reaching out its hand to take part of our American Dream.”
. . .
South Dakota changed its “intestacy” law the very next year, in 1995, so that in the absence of a will, the surviving spouse would automatically receive a decedent’s full estate so long as the surviving children are children of the spouse. Beth Shapiro Kaufman, president of the tax law firm Caplin & Drysdale, said that most states have adopted similar laws.
“The thought is, as long as they’re her children, [the surviving spouse] takes care of the children anyway,” Kaufman said.
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Excerpt taken from the article "Kristi Noem Says Her Story Shows How The Estate Tax Hurts Families. Not Quite." by Arthur Delaney for HuffPost.