alt Hacker NewsTransfers are taxable, either as gifts or income. Not sure why we would exempt inheritance flows. $66B seems like a pretty good haul, that could easily be much larger given the massive portion of wealth that is inherited, and is 5x the budget of the IRS.
And the disincentive effects are much smaller than taxing the equivalent in directly earned income.
I get that today's laws do allow for taxing estate transfers as a taxable event. The personal concern I was raising is that I don't thing it should be taxable, not whether today's laws allow for taxing it.
When my parents die, assuming they go before me, I don't see why the government should be involved. To be clear, my parents are well below estate tax thresholds, but the underlying premise is the same. Someone's relative dying and leaving them an estate shouldn't by a taxable event as far as um concerned.
$66B should be a lot of money, but our federal government doesn't know what it means to balance a budget. We could easily cut $66B in current spending if we cared.