ABSTRACT
Taxes on property left by individuals to their heirs are among the oldest forms of taxation. In societies in which property is privately owned, the state protects the property rights of the individual and supervises the transfer from one generation to the next. Despite the appeal of estate and gift taxes on social, moral, and economic grounds, taxes on property transfers have never provided significant revenues in the United States and have been reduced to an insignificant proportion in recent years. Many of the structural features of the estate and gift taxes have unequal impact, depending on how and when dispositions of property are made. The public does not appear to accept the desirability of a vigorous estate and gift tax system. Death taxes have been supported by people in all wealth classes. Since wealth transfers can take many forms, estate and gift taxation is inherently complicated.
