We, the undersigned, demand that Congress permanently repeal the Federal Estate Tax (a.k.a. Death Tax).  We hold that:

The Death Tax Destroys Family Businesses and Farms:

• one-third of all small business owners wind up selling some or all of their businesses due to the death tax;
• Family businesses are often sold off in part or whole to pay the tax;
• 70% of family businesses do not survive the second generation and 87% do not survive the third generation.

The Death Tax Hurts American Workers:

• Repealing the Death Tax would create 1.5 million jobs;
• The tax wastes billions in small capital each year – the source of new jobs and economic growth – to pay expensive compliance costs.

The Death Tax is Unjust:

• It punishes people who savings and investing, but rewards consumption;
• It is double taxation.

The Death Tax Handicaps America:

• The U.S. had the 3rd highest death tax in the world in 2009;
• Only 23 out of 195 other countries have a death tax;
• Current and former communist nations such as China and Russia have no death tax.

The Death Tax is Fundamentally Un-American:

• Thomas Jefferson repealed America’s first Death Tax in 1802;
• Ulysses Grant repealed America’s second Death Tax in 1870;
• Theodore Roosevelt repealed America's third Death Tax in 1902;
• The fourth death tax was levied to pay for World War I.  That tax was repealed 90 years after the war ended, but Congress wants to bring the tax back to life.

The Death Tax has done enough damage.  It is time for Congress to permanently repeal this unjust tax once and for all.

Signed: