August 31, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
“Tax me,” writes Abigail Disney, a philanthropist and heiress to the Walt Disney fortune, in an opinion piece in USA Today supporting the reinstatement of the estate tax.
“The estate tax incentivizes people like me to do good with our wealth because there is no estate tax on donations to charity,” writes Ms. Disney, who founded the Daphne Foundation, which makes grants to fight poverty in New York City, and a charity called Peace Is Loud, to encourage women around the world to find nonviolent ways to end conflict.
Her charitable activities, she says, “rely on a tax code that supports a vigorous nonprofit sector, a vital part of our society that is bigger and stronger because of the many millions of dollars that flow into it as a result of the estate tax and other tax provisions.”
Ms. Disney joins Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other wealthy Americans who believe Congress was wrong to let the estate tax expire this year.
Charity is not the only reason Ms. Disney supports a tax on the estates of the richest Americans.
“I have watched the gap between rich and poor driven to historic highs by a tax policy that has exacerbated our deficit and eviscerated our basic capacity to provide schooling, emergency services, and clean water and air for one and all, ” she writes. “The estate tax is the cornerstone of a progressive system that leaves wealthy heirs with ample funds while providing the government with the resources it needs to build an environment for the common good. By preserving it, we not only restore billions in revenue to the national treasury—we also restore our most cherished collective ideals as a nation.”
Should more nonprofits and donors take a stand on the estate tax? Let us know what you think by adding your comments.
