The 'Silver Spoon' Tax: How to Strengthen Wealth Transfer Taxation
Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Delivering Equitable Growth: Strategies for the Next Administration (Fall, 2016)
16 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2016
Date Written: October 31, 2016
Abstract
Wealth transfer taxes are a critical policy tool for mitigating economic inequality, including inequality of opportunity. They are also relatively efficient. This short essay summarizes why and how wealth transfer taxes should be strengthened. Reform options that our next President should consider include increasing the wealth transfer tax rate, broadening the base, repealing stepped-up basis, addressing talking points against wealth transfer taxes with little or no factual basis, and converting the estate and gift taxes into a direct tax on the recipients of large inheritances.
Keywords: Wealth transfer tax, estate tax, inheritance tax, economic inequality, intergenerational mobility, tax incidence, tax reform
JEL Classification: D31, D63, D64, H20, H21, H22, H24, K34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation