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The estate tax break bill, House Bill 2653, is a giveaway for the wealthiest and most powerful families in Hawaii. Preferential tax policies like the 2017 Trump tax cuts have already made these families richer — while costing the country billions in revenue for needs like infrastructure.
These business owners are now leveraging the unequal power dynamic between themselves and their employees to coerce workers into spending time and energy sending email messages to lawmakers advocating for even more money for their bosses.
These wealthy owners spent thousands, I’d assume, on a full-page Sunday newspaper ad to call for an even bigger windfall, and they want us to believe paying a fair tax on their wealth will bankrupt them? Please. They know that if they sell their businesses while alive, they have to pay capital gains tax. Now they want to get around the estate tax, too.
Nathan Abril
Kuliouou
EXPRESS YOURSELF
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