Surprise: Bill & Hillary Clinton are hypocrites on the estate tax

Bill and Hillary Clinton
Masters of deception.

Bloomberg has an intriguing report detailing just exactly how hypocritical the Clintons are on the issue of the estate tax (hat tip):

Bill and Hillary Clinton have long supported an estate tax to prevent the U.S. from being dominated by inherited wealth. That doesn’t mean they want to pay it.

To reduce the tax pinch, the Clintons are using financial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S. households in wealth. These moves, common among multimillionaires, will help shield some of their estate from the tax that now tops out at 40 percent of assets upon death.

The Clintons created residence trusts in 2010 and shifted ownership of theirΒ New YorkΒ house into them in 2011, according to federalΒ financial disclosuresΒ and local property records.

Among the tax advantages of such trusts is that any appreciation in the house’s value can happen outside their taxable estate. The move could save the Clintons hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes, said David Scott Sloan, a partner at Holland & Knight LLP inΒ Boston.

β€œThe goal is really be thoughtful and try to build up the nontaxable estate, and that’s really what this is,” Sloan said. β€œYou’re creating things that are going to be on the nontaxable side of the balance sheet when they die.”

The Clintons’ finances are receiving attention as Hillary Clinton tours the country promoting her book, β€œHard Choices.” She said in an interview on ABC television that the couple was β€œdead broke” and in debt when they left the White House in early 2001. After being criticized for her comments, she told ABC’s β€œGood Morning America” that she understood the financial struggles of Americans.

Look, Β I have no issue with people who want to keep more of their own money – whether they keep it themselves or try to keep it in the family. I do, however, have an issue with those who advocate one set of rules for some people while they do just the opposite, something the Clintons – Bill and Hillary both – are infamous for.

Make sure to read the full article – and take note of the journalist who wrote it, Richard Rubin, who is soon to be added to the Clinton “Enemies List”Β in advance of her likely decision to run for President … if he hasn’t been already.

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