Just A Reminder

When people talk about the estate tax being unjust (and for this call it the Death Penalty), they are broadly saying it's not right that, in addition to the loss of a loved one, the wealthy bereft should have the inheritance they are due be treated as income and subject to the same type of taxation you or I would pay for winning a huge lottery payout or even the money we earn at regular jobs.

Often too, the image of a quaint family farm being lost to the IRS after a parent's death is invoked to show how sad and oppressive this tax truly is (though this is not the nature or effect of the estate tax).

That the estate tax can be called unfair at all, or that it is known as the Death Penalty by average Americans should be seen as an absolute PR success and give you a good sense of who's actually turning the screws behind a term like "Death Penalty" and the push to have it repealed.

Counter to this, it would be helpful to remember this is really who would be paying taxes on inherited income.