An inheritance tax or estate tax is a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property or a tax on the estate (total value of the money and property) of a person who has died.^[1] In international tax law, there is a distinction between an estate tax and an inheritance tax: an estate tax is assessed on the assets of the deceased, while an inheritance tax is assessed on the legacies received by the beneficiaries of the estate. However, this distinction is not always respected in the language of tax laws. For example, the "inheritance tax" in the United Kingdom is a tax on the assets of the deceased, and is therefore, strictly speaking, an estate tax.

In some jurisdictions the term used is death duty. For historical reasons that term is used colloquially (though not legally) in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth nations.

Varieties of inheritance and estate taxes[link]

• Belgium, droits de succession or successierechten (Inheritance tax). Collected at the federal level but distributed to the regional level.
• Bermuda: stamp duty
• Czech Republic: daň dědická (Inheritance tax)
• Finland: perintövero (Finnish) or arvskatt (Swedish) (Inheritance tax)
• France: droits de succession (Inheritance tax)
• Germany: Erbschaftssteuer (Inheritance tax)
• Ireland: Inheritance tax (Cáin Oidhreachta)
• Italy: tassa di successione (Inheritance tax). Abolished in 2001.,^[2] and reestablished in 2006. €1,000,000 exemption on a bequest to a spouse or child, and a maximum rate of 8%.^[3][4]
• The Netherlands: Successierecht (Inheritance tax)
• Norway: arveavgift (inheritance and gift tax). Smaller bequests are exempt. Bequests larger than a certain value are taxed from 6% to 15%, depending on the status of the beneficiary and the size of the taxable amount. See Taxation in Norway.
• Switzerland has no national inheritance tax. Some cantons impose estate taxes or inheritance taxes.
• United Kingdom: see Inheritance Tax (United Kingdom) (actually an estate tax)
• United States: see Estate tax in the United States

Some jurisdictions formerly had estate or inheritance taxes, but have abolished them:

• Australia abolished the federal estate tax in 1979.^[5]
• Austria abolished the Erbschaftssteuer in 2008. This tax had some of the features of the gift tax, which was abolished at the same time.^[6]
• Canada: abolished inheritance tax in 1972.
• Hong Kong: abolished estate duty in 2006 for all deaths occurring on or after 11 February 2006. (See Estate Duty Ordinance Cap.111)
• India: had an estate tax from 1953 to 1985.^[7]
• Israel: abolished inheritance tax in 1981.
• Louisiana: abolished inheritance tax in 2008, for deaths occurring on or after July 1, 2004.^[8]
• New Hampshire: abolished state inheritance tax in 2003; abolished surcharge on Federal estate tax in 2005.^[9]
• New Zealand abolished estate duty in 1992.
• Russia abolished inheritance tax in 2006.
• Singapore: abolished estate tax in 2008, for deaths occurring on or after 15 Feb 2008.^[10][11]
• Sweden: abolished inheritance tax in 2005.^[12]
• Utah: abolished inheritance tax in 2005.^[13]

Some states of the United States impose inheritance or estate taxes (see Inheritance tax at the state level):

• Indiana^{[citation needed]}
• Iowa: Inheritance is exempt if passed to a surviving spouse, parents, or grandparents, or to children, grandchildren,or other "lineal" descendants. Other recipients are subject to inheritance tax, with rates varying depending on the relationship of the recipient to the deceased.^[14]
• Kentucky: The inheritance tax is a tax on a beneficiary's right to receive property from a decedent's estate. It is imposed as a percentage of the amount transferred to the beneficiary. Transfers to "Class A" relatives (spouses, parents, children, grandchildren, and siblings) are exempt. Transfers to "Class B" relatives (nieces, nephews, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, aunts, uncles, and great-grandchildren) are taxable. Transfers to "Class C" recipients (all other persons) are taxable at a higher rate.^[15] Kentucky imposes an estate tax in addition to its inheritance tax.^[15]
• Maryland^{[citation needed]}
• Nebraska^{[citation needed]}
• New Jersey^{[citation needed]}
• Oklahoma^{[citation needed]}
• Pennsylvania: Inheritance tax is a flat tax on the value of the decedent's taxable estate as of the date of death, less allowable funeral and administrative expenses and debts of the decedent. Pennsylvania does not allow the six month after date of death alternate valuation method that is available at the federal level. Transfers to spouses exempt. Transfers to grandparents, parents, or lineal descendants are taxed at 4.5%. Transfers to siblings are taxed at 12%. Transfers to any other persons are taxed at 15%. Some assets are exempted, including life insurance proceeds. The inheritance tax is imposed on both residents and nonresidents who owned real estate and tangible personal property in Pennsylvania at the time of their death. The Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax Return (Form Rev-1500) must be filed within nine (9) months of the date of death.^[16]
• Tennessee:^[17]

Other taxation applied to inheritance[link]

In some jurisdictions, when assets are transferred by inheritance, any unrealized increase in the value of those assets is subject to capital gains tax, payable immediately. This applies in Canada, which has no inheritance tax. (see Taxation in Canada)

Where a jurisdiction has both capital gains tax and inheritance tax, it is usual to exempt inheritances from capital gains tax.

In some jurisdictions death gives rise to the local equivalent of gift tax (see Austria, for example). This was the model in the United Kingdom during the period before the introduction of Inheritance Tax in 1986, where estates were charged to a form of gift tax called Capital Transfer Tax. Where a jurisdiction has both gift tax and inheritance tax, it is usual to exempt inheritances from gift tax. Also, it is common for inheritance taxes to share some features of gift taxes, by taxing some transfers which happen during the lifetime of the giver rather than on death. The United Kingdom, for example, subjects "lifetime chargeable transfers" (usually gifts to trusts) to inheritance tax.

Historical[link]

Ancient Rome[link]

No inheritance tax is recorded for the Roman Republic, despite abundant evidence for testamentary law, but one was levied by Rome's first emperor, Augustus, in the last decade of his reign.^[18] The 5 percent tax applied only to inheritances received through a will, and close relatives were exempt from paying it, including the deceased's grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, and siblings.^[19] The question of whether a spouse was exempt is complicated: from the late Republic on, husbands and wives kept their own property scrupulously separate, since a Roman woman remained part of her birth family and not under the legal control of her husband.^[20] Roman social values regarding marital devotion probably exempted a spouse as well.^[21] Estates below a certain value were also exempt from the tax, according to one source,^[22] but other evidence indicates that this was true only in the early years of Trajan's reign.^[23] The revenues from the tax went into a fund to pay military retirement benefits (aerarium militare), along with those from a new sales tax (vicesima).^[24] The inheritance tax is extensively documented in sources pertaining to Roman law, inscriptions, and papyri.^[25] It was one of three major indirect taxes levied on Roman citizens in the provinces of the Empire.^[26]

This page is a modified disambiguation page, which distinguishes not just between pages which would otherwise have the same name, but also between similar legal concepts which have different names in different jurisdictions.

See also[link]

• Transfer tax
• Feudal relief

References[link]