Let's play a game. Why should there be an estate tax?
There is NOT an estate tax on the first $5 million each, so for a rich mom and dad, there is no estate taxes owed for the first $10 million their children or lover mistress receives....
The person receiving the wealth, NEVER paid taxes on it and their parents or lover, never paid taxes on it either....
Yes, they never paid income taxes on it, because they had their wealth in tax free bonds, or in the stock market, where the increased value of their stocks was NEVER TAXED..., until they die or sell it.....
As example take a papa Hilton, he has most all of his wealth in Hilton Hotel Stocks from 40 years ago when he went public...those shares went from $5 a share for his 500,000 shares to now $100 a share for his 500,000 shares....as long as he did not sell off his stock shares, his profit from the capital gains was never taxed....not a dime of his capital gains was taxed.....
The estate tax, after the $10 million that is not taxed at all and exempt from taxation, the estate taxes covers the profit/gains that was NEVER taxed in all the tax avoidance schemes or tax free investments they made, or delayed tax investments they made.