If the expenditure of resources in childhood affects the outcomes in adulthood, the adult distribution of education and incomes will depend at least partially on investments made in childhood. There is considerable variation in the amount of parental inputs children of various socio-economic...

Proponents of transfer taxation argue that levies on gifts and estates serve the dual purposes of breaking up large concentrations of private wealth, while raising significant revenues. A number of commentators have recently questioned the first of these purported advantages, on the grounds that...

This paper describes the current estate and gift tax rules that apply to intergenerational transfers in the United States. It summarizes the incentives for inter vivos giving as a strategy for reducing estate tax liability. It shows that the current level of intergenerational transfers is much...

One of the central components of the nation’s transfer tax system is the federal estate tax exemption. This is the amount that taxpayers can pass free of transfer tax imposition. While over the last 100 years the size of this exemption has fluctuated, Congress most recently increased it...

Is inherited property subject to equitable division in divorce proceedings? This is a question that the Mississippi appellate courts have long grappled with, and one that they are yet to decide on fully. The Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals have provided three separate and...

For the last half a century, the federal gift tax has been relegated virtually out of existence. There are many reasons that the gift tax has met this fate,including the current size of the lifetime tax exemption amount and the fact that noncompliance has gone largely unchecked. However, the...

This paper uses data on anticipated bequests from two waves of the Health and Retirement Study and the Asset and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old (AHEAD), and on actual bequests from AHEAD. Actual bequests were measured in exit interviews given by proxy respondents for 774 AHEAD respondents who...