Small estates affected by taxes too

To the editor:

U. S. Sen. Bill Frist's column on the estate tax left out a few facts. The estate tax, or some variation of it, has many supporters as does the capital gains tax. It is easy to be in favor of taxes someone else has to pay, especially when we think it only applies to the rich. The problem is that the taxpayers are not all nameless multimillionaires. They are right here in our neighborhoods.

Due to the complexities of the law, the relatively small estates involving family farms and small businesses are precisely the ones most often faced with devastating tax burdens when the owners die. They typically have done the poorest job of planning for the future because they haven't the resources, expertise or time to take advantage of the law. Those with large estates plan well into the future and minimize their taxable estates.

When first enacted in the United States in 1798, the estate tax was used as a temporary measure to raise revenues in time of emergency and was levied during the war emergency periods of 1798 to 1802, 1862 to 1870, and 1898 to 1902, with the present federal estate tax law originating with the passage, on Sept. 8, 1916, of a war emergency statute for the Great War, later known as World War I. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We have obviously not been vigilant, since that emergency apparently continues to this day.

LONNIE R. LUSK, CPA, Cape Girardeau