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family business owner of the week: security company vulnerable to death tax
by Dick Patten - No CommentsPosted on July 21st, 2011 11:00 am
Like so many of America’s family-owned businesses, RFI Communications & Security Systems began around a kitchen table.
That was 30 years ago. Today the company provides top-notch security systems for individuals and businesses.
In his oped published by the San Jose Mercury News, RFI Founder Larry Reece shares how his small business started with the humble goal of covering the bills and putting the kids through college.
After a lot of hard work and the introduction of innovative technology, RFI Communications & Security Systems now employs roughly 250 people in three states: California, Nevada, and Washington.
As Larry explains it, the death tax is not only costing him money that could be better spent “growing the company and adding jobs,” but is also jeopardizing the future of current employees:
“When my wife and I die, for example, our personal and business assets will be combined, creating a huge tax bill that our daughter will be forced to pay.
If the bill is large enough, she might have to sell the company.
I've seen it happen time and again to other family businesses. One by one they are sold to large corporations, often to pay estate taxes.
While the large corporations absorb their assets, they don't always absorb the employees. Many lose their jobs.”
As a result, Larry and his wife are “back at the kitchen table, sorting through estate-planning options and trying to save our company for our family of loyal employees.”
As a former family business owner, I can tell you that diverting valuable time and resources for tax planning is the last way any entrepreneur wants to spend his or her time.
That’s why we at the American Family Business Institute continue to pound the halls of Congress, fighting for repeal. It’s our mission to ensure that America’s family farmers and business owners like Larry Reece can spend more time at the kitchen table planning for the future – a future without death taxes.
Click here to read Larry's full story.
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Contact Congress
Have you told the 112th Congress to Repeal the Death Tax?
- ATR & AFBI: End Punitive Tax on Hardworking Hoosiers
Fri, Dec 14, 2012 - Tax Coalition Calls on Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to Quickly Repeal Inheritance Tax
Fri, Dec 14, 2012 - AFBI: This Bill is a Matter of Survival
Thu, Dec 13, 2012
- A Score of the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Actby Stephen J. Entin, April 2011
- The Cost of Compromise: Impact of the 2011-2012 Estate Tax by Anthony Davies, December 2010
- Life Insurance Cash Cow: An Issue Brief on the Hidden Side of Estate Tax Lobbying by Tim Carney & Dick Patten, November 30, 2010
- Growth Consequences of Estate Tax Reform, by Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Cameron Smith, American Family Business Foundation, September, 2010
The Death Tax fight will soon be decided in the halls of Congress by your representatives. AFBI is leading the fight for repeal in Washington, but we cannot do it alone.