MIKK,

Visy was entirely family owned and run. Thus by your reasoning it should be exempt.

Q.E.D.

If you want a handout, sign up for the dole.

I'm also in favour of death taxes. I'm against such obscene accumulation of wealth in the first place, but since capitalism seems entrenched yes, let the next generation make their own way. It's often argued that this kind of socialist agenda kills creativity by killing the incentive to create, or to be productive or whatever, but the true creative/entrepeneurial spirit is not enticed by the profit in the first place: "the well that springs not from the heart is vain" (Goethe). If we took the whole wealth and kudos factor out of the equation, only those with a genuine vocation would do the hard yards in the first place. Money, rather than inspiration, is far to often the goad.

I certainly would be against the reintroduction of death duties.

As I recall death duties was responsible for the breakup of many family farms and rural properties. There are many rural families that are asset rich but income poor.

After death duties was abolished, Capital Gains Tax was introduced and this gave the government much more income than DD ever did.

So now some of you are advocating DD and Capital Gains Tax.

Already there are taxes if one owns property other than your own home and if you employ people you are taxed because of that. All these taxes are designed to milk the willing and enterprizing.

If a person accumulates assets because of skill, enterprize, risk taking and hard work, why should he not be able to pass that on to his heirs.

It would have little effect on me, but it seems some are just envious of the success of others. Yes, DD is an envy tax!

Sounds like your typical 'under-achievers' thread to me.

The good old 'tall poppy' will never die.

By the way. We are all presented with oportunities, it's just that it's very hard to emass a fortune working 38hrs and having the weekens off.

Putting this aside, please don't tell anna lie, casue she will impliment it in a flash.

p.s. Why not look in to just what these men provided for their communities before you reply.

How many jobs did they create collectively for starters?

I've twice married into farming families and am familiar with many in the rural community, and despite all the "battler" stories I can attest that they all have private health insurance, and sending their heirs to expensive private schools is de rigueur. There is also rarely a kind word wasted on the city cousins who are asked to dig deep during periods of drought. The offspring of these true blues too, by the way, rarely stay on the land. The land is generally "milked" dry in these circumstances rather than being used in a sustainable manner that might be conducive to generational holdings. There might be a case for exemptions where families are shown to have a genuine commitment to the family farm, and certainly there are such families out there, but this should be clearly established. Having said that, death taxes are a band-aid solution to the gross disparities that need to be addressed out there.