Hawaii Residents: Taxed to Death and After

By Kymberly Pine, 3/19/2010
Hawaii Reporter
Mar. 20, 2010

On March 2, 2010 the Hawaii State House of Representatives passed House Bill 2866 HD1 which allows the State of Hawaii to collect the Estate Tax, or the Death Tax as it is more commonly known.

If approved, this bill will retroactively apply to the estate of any person that passed away in 2010. What this means is the state will tax at rates of up to 55% the assets of our residents life's work, and since it is being applied retroactively many of these people will never have had a chance to see it coming and prepare for it.

This tax unfairly punishes residents, like my parents, former plantation workers, who worked hard all their lives and saved to have something to pass on to their children and grandchildren. I am sure they never imagined that the government could swoop in and effectively claim half of the fruits of their life's work as their own, right off the top before anything is passed on to their family.

This legislation is especially brutal for those that have successfully built a small business that they want to pass on to the next generation of their family.

Full Article Here