More States Killing Their Death Tax; Is NC Next?

This recent Daily Caller article examines some trends of the death tax, both at the federal and state level – and includes a focus on North Carolina.

In the Democrat-controlled Senate, Republican John Thune has introduced the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act to abolish the federal estate tax. That bill follows on the heels of identical legislation launched in the House of Representatives last year — with more than 200 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle — by Texas Republican Kevin Brady.

Right-leaning activist organizations, think tanks and supply-side economists are also mobilizing, including the American Family Business Institute trade association. With seven months to go before the November election, 203 House and Senate candidates, as well as presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have signed its “Death Tax Repeal Pledge.”

If the federal-level death tax is repealed, then that will set North Carolina even further behind other states in terms of being an attractive destination for retirees. Only 22 states currently levy a death tax, and several more states are moving to eliminate theirs.

In July 2011, Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich signed a law repealing his state’s estate tax. That law will take effect at the beginning of 2013. Last month Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels followed suit in Indiana, signing a bill that slashed estate taxes there and moved the state toward eventual repeal over ten years.

In Tennessee, pressure from advocates and GOP majorities in the state house has pushed an initially hesitant Republican Gov. Bill Haslam to embrace inheritance-tax repeal. Opponents of the tax plan to shift their focus next to North Carolina, home of a Republican-controlled state house and the lame duck Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.

Though activists expect a veto from Perdue, they predict success in 2013.

…

Schoening told TheDC that “with Tennessee repealing, the pressure is on North Carolina.”

“They put themselves out as a state for retirees; they pride themselves on senior communities. Their competition is Florida, which has a constitutional amendment against the death tax, and once Tennessee passes repeal, North Carolina will no longer border any state that maintains one.”

North Carolina’s Revenue Laws Committee recently discussed drafted legislation to end the state’s death tax. There’s no legitimate reason to keep this immoral tax in North Carolina.