[extropy-chat] Cryogenics Economics- Estate Tax deferral?

[Greg Burch]

I'm a lawyer, I don't specialize in estate/tax law (as we call it, "gifts and stiffs"), but I can safely say to the question of tax deferral -- not a chance.  First, in the United States most people (or I should say, most dead people) don't pay estate tax: The vast majority of government revenue from the estate tax comes from a tiny fraction of wealthy individuals.  (The one unusual exception to this is the few relatively large "family farmers" who aren't really wealthy in monetary terms, but are "land rich").  Second, the law is conservative by nature.  LAWS about cryonics (I presume this is what you mean, although you write "cryogenics") will be the LAST thing to change: Commercial and social practices will change first.  For now, the people who are in suspension are legally dead, and whatever needs to be done to deal with that legally should be done.  (Note this is a key element of most funding for cryonics, which is by life -- or rather death -- insurance; something I DO know quite a bit about professionally.  I can say with rather chilling certainty (pun intended) that my life insurance clients only pay upon the death of the insured person.  A successful reanimation would throw the life insurance industry into a death spiral (arrrrggghhh!)  Finally, the idea of entrusting one's wealth until one is reanimated is EXTREMELY problematic, as the few people who have looked into it at any length can attest: There's an old and pesky thing called "the Rule Against Perpetuities" which prohibits perpetual private trusts.  As far as I know, no one's ever satisfactorily solved this problem.  Of course, if people in suspension were ever to be considered legally NOT dead, this wouldn't be a problem, since the infamous Rule Against Perpetuities only applies to the bequests of dead people.

GB -- http://www.gregburch.net

P.S. the rather obscure Rule Against Perpetuities actually appeared in popular culture about 20 years ago; as a plot element in the film "Body Heat."

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org]On Behalf Of Extropian
> Agroforestry Ventures Inc.
> Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 7:57 PM
> To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> Subject: [extropy-chat] Cryogenics Economics- Estate Tax deferral?
> 
> 
> I am from Canada where there are no taxes on estates except for a 3%
> probate fee for those who die intestate.
> 
> If someone is cryopreserved in a state where regeneration is possible
> does one have to probate and dissolve  an estate.  If the cryonaut
> places all their assets into a pre-designed living-will managed trust
> (instructions put into place with various time and event determined
> contingencies pre-planned) which is not to be dissoved until a
> reanimation is done and the person is finally irreversible dead or else
> back to life,  can the government extract estate taxes?
> 
> Is there sufficient tax deferral at stake that the government might seek
> to disallow
> cryogenic storage because it stands to defer today's taxes for perhaps
> 100 years into the future?
> 
> Morris Johnson
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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