Farmers Fall Prey to Federal Estate Tax Laws

The Alabama Farmers Federation supports pending legislation in Congress that would help protect American’s farm and ranch families from potentially crippling blows of the federal estate tax following a farm owner’s death.

“Farming is a capital intensive industry,” said Federation National Legislative Programs Director Mitt Walker. “The majority of assets owned by a typical farm family are in the form of land and equipment. When a farm is transferred to the next generation and there isn’t enough cash to cover the taxes owed, surviving family members may be forced to sell of a substantial portion of the farm to pay the taxes. There is just something wrong with that scenario.”

The Senate Bill, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2012 (S. 2242), was introduced by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). The bill is similar to another bill, H.R. 1259, introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). The House bill now has more than 200 co-sponsors.

Members of the Alabama congressional delegation who have co-sponsored the bill in their respective chambers include U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions and U.S. Reps. Spencer Bachus, Robert Aderholt, Jo Bonner, Martha Roby, and Mo Brooks, all Republicans.

The Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 set the estate tax exemption at $5 million per person, with a top tax rate of 35 percent for 2011 and 2012. That legislation also put in place a new provision for 2011 and 2012 that allows the unused portion of a spouse’s exemption to be used by a surviving spouse, and it permanently reinstates stepped-up basis in regard to tax treatment.

The new legislation is necessary because without congressional action, in 2013, the estate tax exemption will shrink to $1 million per person with no spousal transfer, and the top rate will increase to 55 percent.

This will strike a blow to farm and ranch operations from one generation to the next, Walker said.

“A $1 million exemption is not high enough to protect a typical farm or ranch able to support a family and, when coupled with a top tax rate of 55 percent, can be especially difficult for farm and ranch businesses,” he said.

Although estate tax planning may protect some family farms and ranches from devastating estate taxes, planning tools are costly and take money needed to operate and expand the business.

Lie To Get What You Want

My friend Michael is a strict vegetarian. He loves going out for dinner with his friends and never complains. He can always find something to eat, he says. When we went out for dinner recently, I witnessed a little trick he uses to ensure he stays a vegetarian when he’s not doing the cooking himself.

The soup arrived. It looked good and smelled even better. Again Michael asked the waitress, “you’re sure this is vegetable stock, right? Because I’m really allergic to chicken and if there’s any chicken in it I will have a seizure.” And with that the waitress’s eyes got a little bigger. “Lemme just check,” she said as she went off to ask someone else. Within less than a minute, she walked back and took the bowl of soup away from Michael. “It’s chicken stock,” she said.

Until the waitress was accountable for Michael’s health, she didn’t seem too interested in ensuring that her answer was indeed right. The time it took her to find out was seconds. Giving Michael what he preferred didn’t seem to motivate her until she thought she may be responsible for anything more than disappointing a customer.

But this is not a story of how we sometimes have to lie to get someone to care about us. It’s actually something more positive. As soon as Michael shifted the accountability to the waitress, she was much more willing to invest more time and attention to Michael’s needs. In other words, when we make others accountable for what could be even negative results, people rise to the occasion.

On this particular night, Michael ordered the soup. “Is it vegetable stock or chicken stock?” he asked the waitress. “Vegetable,” she replied. “Are you sure,” Michael continued, “I can’t have it if it’s chicken based.” “It’s vegetable,” replied the waitress again confidently.

We could all do a bit better at giving others accountability for things at work. If we give someone responsibility but then double check their work a hundred times before sending it to the client, then they are no longer accountable…we are. If we demand that someone ask us permission before doing anything, then we are the ones giving permission as opposed to assigning responsibility.

People are funny animals. When given serious responsibility, we tend to take it seriously and almost always rise to the challenge. The best organizations know this well. They don’t assign tasks to their people, they assign responsibility. And with shared responsibility, people tend to seek help from each other more often, increasing the quality of teamwork. The reason is simple, when we work together, we’re more likely to succeed than if we work alone.

It’s the most poetic of paradoxes. The more individual accountability we give to someone, the more they are willing to accept the help of others to ensure everything goes right. Even the waitress knew that.

(Source: blog.startwithwhy.com)

Perspective

The sister of a white Mobile, Alabama man who suffered severe head trauma during a beating by approximately 20 black neighbors on Saturday spoke exclusively to The Daily Caller, saying that the incident started after one of her children witnessed some of the eventual assailants stealing an item from a neighbor’s porch — not, as some media outlets have reported, following a disagreement about a pick-up basketball game in the street.

Ashley Parker, whose brother Matthew Owens is clinging to life after the assault, said Owens was attacked after her 21-year-old daughter witnessed a group of African-American youth moving from yard to yard in the neighborhood and taking something that didn’t belong to them. She told Owens, who confronted the youths.

She “saw one of them take something off a porch,” Parker said, “and that is when Matthew approached them and told them they need to go home.”

The group returned with more than a dozen others, she said, beating Owens with bats, brass knuckles, a chair, a paint can and other objects. The attack left him bloodied and unconscious.

Parker has since reinforced her account about petty theft precipitating the incident, telling the same version of events to a Facebook group that was started to support her brother.

She said she is “scared to death” and plans to move out of the neighborhood this week.

“I don’t feel safe here anymore,” she told TheDC. “My brother is being smeared. … I know how this works now. The victim always ends up the bad guy. I have lost faith in humanity because of this.”

(Source: dailycaller.com)

Suspect Attacks White Teen Over Trayvon Case

CHICAGO –  A black 18-year-old suspected of a violent attack on a white teen told Chicago police the beating was motivated by his anger over the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, MyFoxChicago reports.

Alton Hayes III was charged with a hate crime after he and a 15-year-old attacked the 19-year-old man at about 1:00 a.m. on April 17 in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb.

Police say Hayes and his teenage partner, who has not been named since he is a juvenile, picked the man apparently at random and pinned his arms to the side. 

Hayes allegedly then picked up a tree branch and demanded the victim give them his belongings, saying, “Empty your pockets, white boy.”

The suspects then rifled through the victim’s pockets, threw him to the ground and punched him numerous times in the head and back. Both suspects are black and the victim is white, according to police.

MyFoxChicago reports Hayes told police he decided to attack his victim because he is angry over the death of Trayvon Martin. Hayes said he chose his victim because he is white.

Hayes was charged with attempted robbery, aggravated battery and a hate crime, all felonies. His teenage comrade was referred to juvenile court.

Trayvon Martin, 17, is the unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot as he walked through a gated community in Sanford, Fla. on Feb. 26. George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder, went into hiding Monday as he awaits trial.

Emotions have run high across the US over the incident, in large part because six weeks passed before Zimmerman was charged — leading many African-American community leaders to decry what they perceived as racism in the justice system.

On Saturday night, a white man was beaten by a throng of African-Americans in Mobile, Ala., after telling a group of children to stop playing basketball in the middle of a street — with one witness claiming she heard an assailant exclaim, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon,” WKRG -TV reported.

However, the Mobile Police Department said the assault on Matthew Owens, 40, was not being investigated as a hate crime.

(Source: foxnews.com)

Pit Bull Run-Ins Prompt Zimmerman Gun Purchase

George Zimmerman and his wife began carrying handguns after repeated run-ins with a pit bull, and the volunteer neighborhood watchman continued his armed vigil over a gated community in Sanford, Fla., as a rash of burglaries left neighbors frightened, according to a report.

The couple took firearms training courses and got handguns and concealed carry permits in late 2009 — three years before Zimmerman shot unarmed teen Trayvon Martin dead — after a pit bull named Big Boi menaced Shellie Zimmerman near their home, Reuters reported.

Big Boi later spooked a dog owned by Zimmerman’s mother-in-law, prompting the Zimmermans to contact Seminole County Animal Services and to buy pepper spray, the news agency reported. After a third encounter with the dog, Zimmerman called authorities and an officer who came to the house advised him to take up arms.

“Don’t use pepper spray,” the officer told the Zimmermans, according to a friend who relayed the conversation to a Reuters reporter. “It’ll take two or three seconds to take effect, but a quarter-second for the dog to jump you. Get a gun.”

That November, Reuters reported, the Zimmermans heeded that advice and bought two guns in early December. George Zimmerman selected a lightweight Kel-Tec PF-9 9-mm. handgun. It is not clear if that was the same gun that killed Martin on Feb. 26, after a confrontation. Zimmerman, 28, who claims he acted in self-defense after Martin attacked him, has been charged with second-degree murder. He went into hiding after being released from jail on $150,000 bond.

Prior to the fateful encounter with Martin, Zimmerman’s attention had shifted from Big Boi to a string of robberies that began to plague the community sometime around June 2011, Reuters reported. He was later asked by the homeowners association to launch a neighborhood watch, and Zimmerman began carrying the 9-mm. handgun as his walked his dog — a violation of neighborhood-watch guidelines, but not a crime.

Calls by FoxNews.com to Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, were not immediately returned Thursday.

(Source: foxnews.com)

What is left? What is right?

It is extremely unfortunate that the writers on political philosophy today have undertaken to measure various issues in terms of political parties instead of political power. No doubt the American Founding Fathers would have considered this modern measuring stick most objectionable, even meaningless.

Today, as we mentioned, it is popular in the classroom as well as the press to refer to “Communism on the left,” and “Fascism on the right.” People and parties are often called “Leftist,” or “Rightist.” The public do not really understand what they are talking about.

These terms actually refer to the manner in which the various parties are seated in the parliaments of Europe. The radical revolutionaries (usually Communists) occupy the far left and the military dictatorships (such as Fascists) are on the far right. Other parties are located in between.

Measuring people and issues in terms of political parties has turned out to be philosophically fallacious if not totally misleading. This is because the platforms or positions of political parties are often superficial and structured on shifting sand. The platform of a political party of one generation can hardly be recognized by the next. Furthermore, Communism and Fascism turned out to be different names for approximately the same thing—the police state. They are not opposite extremes but, for all practical purposes, are practically identical.

Government is defined in the dictionary as “a system of ruling or controlling,” and therefore the American Founders measured political systems in terms of the amount of coercive power or systematic control which a particular system of government exercises over its people. In other words, the yardstick is not political parties, but political power.

Using this type of yardstick, they American Founders considered the two extremes to be Anarchy on the one hand, and Tyranny on the other. At the one extreme of anarchy there is no government, no law, no systematic control and no governmental power, while at the other extreme there is too much control, too much political oppression, too much government. Or, as the Founders called it, “tyranny.”

One Small Step

I was approached recently by a member of our Sovereign Man community who filed the paperwork to relinquish US citizenship some time ago. Long story short, after an incomprehensibly long wait, the US government finally sent him a reply: Application DENIED.

Absolutely shocking. That you even have to ‘apply’ to relinquish what you never signed up for is intellectually insulting. That you cannot do so freely, and immediately, is nothing short of totalitarian.

It’s still an embryonic movement, though more and more US citizens are being driven to divorce their country. Last year nearly 1,600 people gave up US citizenship, up from 1,485 in 2010, 731 in 2009, and 226 in 2008.

While some renunciants have philosophical misgivings about being American, most do it for tax reasons. There’s a growing number of expats who, despite living abroad for years, are still paying huge portions of their income to Uncle Sam.

What’s more, the filing requirements are getting more and more onerous. US citizens living overseas have to keep up with all sorts of changes to the tax code that they may not be privy to, and the penalties for noncompliance are severe.

I can’t tell you how many friends I have who are US citizens living abroad that had no idea they were supposed to file the Report of Foreign Bank Account (FBAR) form every year; or the new FATCA form 8938; or those with businesses that must file form 8858 or 5471.

Usually these things come with pretty nasty penalties, possibly up to $10,000 per instance of failure to file.

Then there’s the latest, greatest tax target: accidental US citizens. This group consists of foreigners who happen to be dual nationals because they were born in the US or have an American parent.

These foreigners have spent their entire lives outside the US.  They know absolutely nothing about US tax code. Now they’re getting Dear John letters from the US government saying-

“I see you are a US citizen but have never filed your taxes. Please enclose a check for the following absurd amount of money, which includes interest and penalties for the last 20-years…”

Such tactics smack of desperation… typical of the same sorts of cannibalistic moves that failing, bankrupt governments throughout history have exacted upon their people.

Citizenship is nothing more than accident of birth. Yet in the modern nation-state paradigm, governments lay claim to citizens from the time they’re born as if we’re property.

Children are saddled with obligations that they never signed up for– taxes, compulsory military service, a debilitating national debt, etc.

Most countries at least have procedures to voluntarily surrender citizenship for those who choose to opt out of the system; in the United States, it is contained in section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The process usually takes place overseas at a US consulate– you have to fill out a series of forms, swear an oath in front of a government official, and eventually file a final tax return. Some people even have to pay a steep ‘exit tax’ on the value of their assets.

I know dozens who have done this, and from what my friends tell me, many of the consular officials attempt to impugn, insult, or otherwise intimidate people looking to surrender their citizenship. It’s their last-ditch effort to keep the milk cows from escaping the dairy farm.

For example, one official tried terrorizing a friend of mine last year in South Africa, saying, “This smells like TAX EVASION to me!”

Despite all the forms, the bureaucracy, and the intimidation tactics, I had never heard of a case where someone’s properly submitted ’application’ to surrender citizenship has been denied (bar Ken O’Keefe). Until now.

But in what may be the most distinguishing mark of a totalitarian state, the US government has now officially prevented someone from freely leaving the system. The Soviet Union comes to mind.

It certainly does make one wonder to what desperate lows they will sink to next.

(Source: sovereignman.com)

True Law

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and ever lasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions…It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligation by senate or by people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, it’s promulgator, and it’s enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment.

- Cicero defines Natural Law.

“The only Roman political writer who has exercised enduring influence throughout the ages is Cicero (106-43 B.C.)…Cicero studied law in Rome, and philosophy in Athens…He became the leading lawyer of his time and also rose to the highest office of state [Roman Consul]…Yet his life was not free of sadness; only five years after he had held the highest office in Rome, the consulate, he found himself in exile for a year…Cicero nevertheless showed considerable personal courage in opposing the drift towards dictatorship based on popular support. Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., and a year later, in 43 B.C. Cicero was murdered by the henchmen of Anthony, a member of the triumvirate set up after Caesar’s death.” - William Ebenstein from Great Political Thinkers

In his landmark books The Republic and The Laws, Cicero projected the grandeur and promise of some future society based on Natural Law.

Excerpt from Ebenstein, sourced from Skousen.