Think of the estate tax as a deferred tax. The person who earned the money (assuming they did) does not have to pay it until they die. Otherwise they would have had to pay more tax during their lifetime to make up the difference. It never belonged to the heirs (if they worked to earn it, they should have been better compensated while the…
Think of the estate tax as a deferred tax. The person who earned the money (assuming they did) does not have to pay it until they die. Otherwise they would have had to pay more tax during their lifetime to make up the difference. It never belonged to the heirs (if they worked to earn it, they should have been better compensated while the deceased was still alive). Obviously there is a problem if the threshold is low enough to trouble family farms and small businesses, but that is easily solved by raising the limit. Big firms should be broken up from time to time to shake up markets and give the next generation of would-be entrepreneurs the chance to break into markets which have approached being monopolies, just as huge trees falling in the forest provide opportunities and resources for saplings and many other parts of the biosphere.
Think of the estate tax as a deferred tax. The person who earned the money (assuming they did) does not have to pay it until they die. Otherwise they would have had to pay more tax during their lifetime to make up the difference. It never belonged to the heirs (if they worked to earn it, they should have been better compensated while the deceased was still alive). Obviously there is a problem if the threshold is low enough to trouble family farms and small businesses, but that is easily solved by raising the limit. Big firms should be broken up from time to time to shake up markets and give the next generation of would-be entrepreneurs the chance to break into markets which have approached being monopolies, just as huge trees falling in the forest provide opportunities and resources for saplings and many other parts of the biosphere.