It was Benjamin Franklin that once said, “In this world, nothing can be certain, except death and taxes.”
Now, in a recent vote, local county officials have found a way to tax you even after death. Several counties in Florida, including Lee and Collier, voted to raise a cremation tax that supposedly goes to fund district medical examiners in these counties.
That’s right. Even after death, the government wants to profit off of your rapidly decaying flesh. And, with Florida being a state with one of the highest elderly populations, counties could make a killing off of this new tax.
More and more Floridians are choosing cremation because it’s a cost effective way to deal with their dead bodies. But, with this new cremation tax, some cases of cremation may be just as expensive as a burial, if not more so.
In Lee County, the cremation fee was just $25 in 2004. Now, in 2015, every county commissioner voted in favor of increasing the fee from $45 to $50. In 2014, Lee County collected $195,830 in cremation fees.
State Rep. Kenneth Roberson is sponsoring a bill in Tallahassee that would abolish the county fee.
“Why should you have to pay a fee or death tax when you die?” Robertson told NBC2.
While the cost of living in Florida is cheap, the cost of death is rising, and it’s a telling sign of increased quotas state officials have to fill in order to stay in office and bring in money to departments that, with universalized health care, would otherwise be unnecessary.
Socialist idealisms aside, people struggle enough in life, so why should they have to worry about paying even after death? If there is life after death, it shouldn’t have to be burdened with taxes.