Why are inheritance taxes unpopular?

Keith Dowding*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    There is a puzzle over why inheritance taxes are unpopular relative to other taxes since they are progressive and, assuming they are spent wisely on welfare goods, more people should gain than lose through inheritance tax. I examine four reasons why inheritance tax might be unpopular (a) propaganda, (b) fiscal illusion, (c) framing and developing the latter (d) an evolutionary basis in human reasoning. The latter suggests that the relative popularity of a tax is related to how far the money taxed is already 'in the possession' of the person taxed. Given these reasons I make a suggestion and examine some proposal for making inheritance tax less unpopular.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)179-183
    Number of pages5
    JournalPolitical Quarterly
    Volume79
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Apr 2008

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