Harvey Sheen was once one of the world’s most influential Fortune 500 CEOs.
He moved between New York and Tokyo in the 1970s, running the US arm of Sony, a film brand A revolution in consumer technology It helped launch what became a new digital age.
Shane Sony’s sales doubled In the United States, making him one of the most prominent leaders of the industry, until 1978, when Sony co-founder Akio Morita fired him for excessive combativeness.
This is part of Shane’s career It has been documented In profiles in magazines and business books. But a new film by his son, director Justin Sheen, sheds light on another battle his late father fought: this battle with the US tax code.
in Death and taxesViewers meet Harvey Sheen, a retiree at home, who is obsessed with saving money and protecting the spoils of his investments from the IRS. The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Sheen grew up in a poor section of Brooklyn and inherited little when his parents died. He wanted his legacy to be generous. “It’s not that I’m selfish to myself,” he says at one point in the documentary. “It is for you, your descendants and their descendants.”
Sheen sought to ensure that his relatives would live comfortably after his death, but his obsession with living frugally and avoiding taxes caused heartache during his lifetime. “My mother bore the brunt of his anger and toughness,” Justin Sheen says. luck. His father even insisted on moving with his wife to Florida for tax purposes, overcoming her profound objections.
Sheen’s story is animated by footage of family get-togethers and interviews with his son, who was arrested in the two decades before Sheen’s death, in 2008. The family’s tale becomes a vehicle for probing the moral questions shaping the current discussion about the so-called “death tax,” and the mindset of the super-rich. Who think high estate taxes are un-American.
Over the past several decades, Republican presidents have succeeded one another I was aroused The minimum at which the wealthy need to pay estate taxes, a lower tax rate, or both. Democratic leaders generally did I did the oppositeseeing property taxes as a way to eliminate the concentration of wealth at the top of the social and economic ladder.
today, Real estate tax in America is 40% It only applies to estates worth at least $13.6 million per person. That’s more than double the individual exemption, $5.6 million, that was allowed before former President Donald Trump took office in 2017. (This number is adjusted for inflation annually.)
Trump effectively cut the estate tax for thousands of very wealthy American families when his administration enacted the Tax and Jobs Act, a set of policies It is scheduled to expire Early next year. With Trump back in office, and with a Republican-controlled Congress, economists expect the tax law to be extended, although it is also possible that Republicans will do so. Eliminate the real estate tax completely. By comparison, Vice President Kamala Harris, in her failed run for president, said she supported a tax plan repair This would have reduced the exemption to $3.5 million, thus implicating thousands of additional people.
Justin Sheen, famous for Kreb campa Netflix documentary executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, sides with the left on tax issues. Over the years, he argued with his father about the social impact of avoiding taxes, even as his father’s wealth allowed him to become a film director, a point his father raised in old footage and others interviewed on camera.
Courtesy of Shadowbox Film Inc.
Documentary director Shane is keen to explore all points of view on the issue of property taxes. He speaks to Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, an advocacy group for libertarian taxpayers, Derek Washington, professor of economics and urban policy at The New School, Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and others. Through these conversations, deftly woven into his family’s personal narrative, the director deconstructs persistent myths about estate taxes (which are not a form of estate taxes). Double taxationfor example) and explains the role played by tax advantages and loopholes in creating Racial wealth gapwhile still humanizing people who shared his father’s opinion.
“These issues are bigger than the politics of the moment,” Shin says. luck. His father’s rags-to-riches story begins with an education paid for through the GI Bill, which mostly… The white American benefitedQ. “He’s a great representative of his point of view, he lived it, and he deserves everything he got,” Shane says. But the question now is whether the ability to evade taxes prevents others from experiencing the same kind of economic progress.
The film comes at the right time not only as lawmakers look to reconsider Trump’s tax law, but also because of the shift in American demographics. The United States is entering a period that is expected to witness The largest transfer of wealth Between generations in the country’s history.
That’s a cause for concern for Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, who Sheen interviews early in the film.
“If it is possible to accumulate more and more wealth and give it to heirs without paying any taxes at all, we are on the way to a permanent aristocracy in America,” he says.
Death and taxes Available online at New York City Documents Until December 1, it is scheduled to be shown at film festivals. See Movie website For more.
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