Sharron Angle to Publicly Sign Death Tax Repeal Pledge
Nevada Jobs & Family Businesses Jeopardized if Federal Estate Tax Raised from Dead
Reno, NV — The American Family Business Institute (AFBI), a Washington-based trade association representing family-owned businesses, ranches and farms, will host a July 21 press conference in Reno with U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle and Advanced Refining Concepts’ founders Dr. Rudolph and Peter Gunnerman on estate-tax repeal.
At the event, Angle will sign AFBI’s “Death Tax Repeal Pledge” and discuss the tax’s impact on family businesses, jobs, economic growth and tax revenues. By signing the pledge, Angle will commit to vote for repeal of the estate tax, which her opponent, Senator Harry Reid, wants reinstated at a rate of 55 percent or higher.
Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy said that “Harry Reid has been an opponent of Nevada family businesses and workers by destructively pursuing higher estate tax rates and lower estate tax exemptions, and he has resolutely opposed endeavors to trim down and eliminate the job killing estate tax during the entire occupancy of his long political career.”
The federal estate tax expired for one year on December 31, 2009. If Congress doesn’t permanently repeal the tax it will automatically reappear on January 1, 2011, with all estates exceeding $1 million subject to a 55 percent tax. According to various academic and policy studies, this would threaten the future of many of Nevada’s family-owned businesses, farms and ranches, which are vital to job creation and the state and local tax base.
Because estate values include “hard” assets, including homes and land, business property, equipment and inventory, livestock, money in bank accounts, CDs, IRAs and other investments, the estate tax forces many businesses to spend needless dollars on estate tax planning that otherwise could be invested in the business. Some families are forced to liquidate the business when the owner dies just to pay the taxman, putting the jobs of their employees in jeopardy.
No one knows this better than the Gunnermans, who operate Advanced Refining Concepts in Reno. The press conference will be hosted at their facility and the Gunnermans will share first-hand how the return of the estate tax threatens the future of their family-owned business.
AFBI President Dick Patten will discuss what is going on with the estate tax nationally and what Nevada business owners can do to ensure that the tax doesn’t kill their businesses.
Refreshments will be served and the event is open to the public and the media.
SPEAKERS:
Sharron Angle Candidate, U.S. Senate
Peter Gunnerman Partner and Director, Advanced Refining Concepts
Dick Patten President, American Family Business Institute
DETAILS:
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:00 AM
Advanced Refining Concepts Plant, 960 United Circle Way Sparks, NV 89431
RSVP: Sarah McManamon Sarah.McManamon@nodeathtax.org or 202-969-2444 ext. 502
Event is open to the public and media.
