Why the embattled ‘death tax’ may not be long for this world
THE ESTATE TAX HAS LONG PUNCHED ABOVE ITS WEIGHT. Despite applying to less than one-half of 1% of U.S. estates each year—mostly the richest of the rich—it has earned outsize attention in the political ring, often the subject of presidential campaigns, legislative horse-trading and philosophical scrimmages over the proper role of taxes in the Republic. Democrats see it as a populist measure designed to prevent the accumulation of dynastic wealth, while Republicans, who masterfully rebranded it as the “death
