[0x0nyandesu]

It's quite amazing isn't it? One minute you have the ability to direct wealth towards enriching your children's lives and then you're dead and the state says no we get to take 97% of all of it. It's no wonder wealthy people hoard wealth in none cash forms.

[wpietri]

If you think death only takes away the ability to spend money, I have some bad news for you.

In any case, in the US the estate tax and the gift tax are basically the same thing, so rich people can give the same millions to their kids either before or after they die and pay basically the same taxes: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57272

[refenestrator]

Cite for that 97% figure?

I was under the impression there's a large exemption for inheritances under a few million and then it's still a number lower than income tax on the rest.

Philosophically, you don't own anything after you're dead. Someone else, alive, is getting income in the form of an inheritance.

[suzzer99]

Of course 97% is nonsense. And $11.7M per family is completely untaxed, something the billionaires pushing for an end to inheritance tax do an amazing job of obfuscating.