Inheritance Tax
a certain percentage of the estate of a deceased person taken by the State in its transmission to his heirs. Taxes of this sort, known as "death duties," were imposed in Rome, two thousand years ago. It is only within recent times, however, since the increasing tendency toward the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few persons has become an economic problem, that the taxation of inheritances has assumed special significance. It is now one of the measures proposed by all progressive and radical parties to counteract the accumulation of vast, unearned fortunes from generation to generation. The right of wealthy persons to hand on their fortunes to heirs who have done nothing to earn them is becoming more and more questioned in all advanced countries. This is especially true of industrial countries, where vast wealth is produced through commercial enterprise and where invested capital plays a large part in economic development. It is therefore, not surprising to find Great Britain, her colonies, and the United States prominent among those countries where the taxation of inheritances has become an established principle. Inheritance taxes are especially heavy in Australia, where the labor elements are a powerful influence in politics. In England the inheritance tax ranges from one to ten per cent., depending on the closeness of relationship between the deceased and his heirs. In the United States an inheritance tax was imposed first during the Civil War, but this was entirely for the purpose of raising revenues for the prosecution of warfare, and ceased after the Within recent years a large numwar.
INITIATIVE ber of separate States have imposed inheritance taxation. There has, of course, been much opposition on the part of the wealthy classes, but generally such laws have been upheld as constitutional by the various courts in which they have been tested, holding that taxes of this sort were not confiscatory.
In all States, as well as in all foreign countries, the rate of inheritance taxation increases in two directions. First of all, there is an increase in proportion to the amount of the estate inherited, no tax at all being imposed on trifling amounts, while, as is the case in the State of Georgia, the rate may rise above 21 per cent. where over half a million dollars are involved. Also, the rate of taxation will usually be less in a case where the heirs are the children of the deceased, and greater where the heirs are distant relatives, or perhaps not relatives at all. Exception, of course, is usually made where the estate is left to religious, or philanthropic institutions.
The most recent States in this country to pass inheritance tax legislation are Kansas, New Hampshire, Georgia and New Mexico, all of which imposed direct inheritance taxes during 1919. In the majority of other States where such taxes are already part of the State laws there is a continuous tendency to increase the rate.