John B. Breaux: “Today I join with several of my colleagues to introduce the Estate Tax Relief for the American Family Act of 1997. Tax…”

“Today I join with several of my colleagues to introduce the Estate Tax Relief for the American Family Act of 1997. Tax policy should meet two criteria. It should provide an effective and efficient way to collect taxes for the operation of our Government and it should encourage positive economic and social policies. This tax does neither. After looking at the current system, I have concluded that Federal estate and gift taxes are not worth the cost to our economy, to businesses and to American families. In 1995, the estate tax generated $14.8 billion in revenue, only 1.09 percent of total Federal revenues. Conversely, the cost of collecting and enforcing the estate tax to the Government and taxpayers was 65 cents of every dollar collected. The effects of the estate tax are felt most by family-owned businesses. More than 70 percent of family-owned businesses do not survive the second generation and 87 percent do not survive the third generation. Many families are forced to liquefy their businesses in order to pay the estate tax. There is a definite need to remedy these problems and this bill takes steps in the right direction. The legislation would increase the estate tax exemption from $600,000 to $1 million, and allow estate tax-free transfers of certain qualified small business assets. I hope that any tax bill we put forth this year will include estate tax relief based on the principles we have put forth in this bill.”