Over thirty years ago, George Cooper wrote a seminal article arguing that the estate tax was largely voluntary. Although many academics subsequently embraced Cooper's thesis that the estate tax easily can be avoided through a modicum of planning, we argue that the voluntary tax metaphor crumbles...

This article proposes replacing the federal estate and gift tax system with an accessions tax. An accessions tax is a tax, at progressive rates, on the aggregate lifetime gratuitous receipts of an individual in excess of a specified exemption. The main thesis of this article is that an...

If decedent can possess property on the happening of an event that has not occurred at his death, should that contingent property interest, properly discounted to reflect that risk, be included in his estate? If decedent's death extinguishes a contingent interest that he created, should anything...

Following an acrimonious debate regarding estate taxes over the past several years, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 reforms and cuts estate taxes through 2009, abolishes the tax in 2010, and then reinstates it in 2011. These changes make the taxation of transfers...

Congress needs to reconsider whether Code section 2104(a) which subjects the ownership of domestic stock by nonresident aliens to estate tax merits retention. This analysis offers several reasons as to why policy makers should introduce legislation that either repeals this Code section or...

This analysis examines the arguments for and against the federal estate tax and concludes that the estate tax generates costs to taxpayers, the economy, and the environment that far exceed any potential benefits that it might arguably produce. This paper updates a previous Joint Economic...

The federal government has taxed intergenerational wealth transfers since 1916 through the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. This analysis examines the arguments for and against the federal estate tax and concludes that the estate tax generates costs to taxpayers, the economy...