Search This Blog

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Singapore Reaps Benefits of Abolishing the Death Tax

SBE Council friend Dick Patten, President of the American Family Business Institute, brings us this news out of Singapore:

"The booming 'Asian Tiger' nation of Singapore has just become the latest country to reap the benefits of estate tax repeal. As the linked article and study explains, abolishing the death tax has lowered the tax burden on the middle class and made Singapore a much more attractive place to do business.

"The Tax Notes study points out that the Singapore 'government also was aware that other jurisdictions, including Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, had abolished estate tax duty in recent years.' Those countries joined Sweden, Russia, and several Eastern European nations in repealing this millstone of a tax."

Patten observes, "One wonders how much longer it will be before the U.S. Congress discovers the benefits of abolishing our death tax. The rest of the world seems to have learned the lesson: the death tax is not only unfair and unpopular, it hurts the economies of the nations that have such a tax."

No comments: