Estate Taxes, Life Insurance, and Small Business

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, John Phillips and Harvey Rosen ()

No 10, Center for Policy Research Working Papers from Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Abstract: One criticism of the estate tax is that it prevents the owners of family businesses from passing their enterprises onto their children. The problem is that it may be difficult to pay estate taxes without liquidating the business. A natural question is why individuals with such concerns do not purchase enough life insurance to meet their estate tax liabilities. This paper examines whether and how people use life insurance to deal with the estate tax. We find that, other things being the same, business owners purchase more life insurance than other individuals. However, on the margin, their insurance purchases are less responsive to estate tax considerations and they are less likely to have the wherewithal to meet estate tax liabilities out of liquid assets plus insurance.

JEL-codes: H24 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 1999-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/149/ (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Estate Taxes, Life Insurance, And Small Business (2001)
Working Paper: Estate Taxes, Life Insurance, and Small Business (1999)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:max:cprwps:10

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