ABSTRACT
A death duty is a form of tax which does something to adjust the inequities which would result by restricting the tax base to income and expenditure. It is a recognition that wealth confers a taxable capacity over and above the income derived from it. It supplements income tax by taxing wealth which has given its owner opportunities and security even though it has yielded little or no income; and a death duty, too, acts as a long-run tax on capital gains. Injustices arise because the form often takes little account of the incidence of death duty. The form of death duty most to be commended is an inheritance tax with integrated gift tax in which the rate of duty depends on the cumulative receipts of legacies and gifts throughout a lifetime, sometimes called an accessions tax. Each person, receiving a legacy or gift, would be taxed at the rate appropriate to the aggregate received by legacy and gift.
