The basic insight behind the estate tax is that wealth concentration is a problem. That was true in 1916, when the tax was enacted, and it’s true today, when it’s being neutered. As Ray Madoff explains, the going theory came from Louis Brandeis, who said, “We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy, but we can’t have both.” Andrew Carnegie himself testified in favor the estate tax’s creation.
The way it works is simple enough. There’s an exemption level beneath which estates are not taxed, and a tax rate that applies to every dollar the estate is worth above the exemption. In 2001, we had a $675,000 exemption and a 55 percent tax rate. So if you were inheriting an estate worth $700,000, you had to pay a 55 percent tax on that final $25,000. The estate tax’s levels, however, have been changing because the Bush tax cuts — as you can see in the table on the right — have been phasing it out. In 2002, it was $1 million, and 50 percent. By 2009, the exemption was up to $3.5 million, and the rate down to 45 percent. And in 2010, the estate tax was repealed.