Estate, Inheritance, and Gift Taxes

The Estate, Inheritance, and Gift Taxes section contains a comprehensive database on the evolution of estate, inheritance, and gift (EIG) taxation, both across countries and (forthcoming) across the U.S. states. This section focuses on the taxation of wealth transfers, that is, transfers from one household or individual to another, either when the donor is living (inter vivos gifts) or at the time of the donor’s death (bequests). When assessing taxes, we distinguish among three types of taxes: those levied on estates (on the total amount bequeathed), on inheritances (on amounts received by individual recipients), and on gifts (given by living donors). The EIG sections contain information on statutory tax schedules, marginal tax rates, top marginal rates, exemption thresholds, and tax revenues. Information on effective taxation is also derived and presented. Understanding how governments tax these transfers is essential because bequests, inheritances, and inter vivos gifts are crucial economic resources for households and because their scale has increased substantially in recent decades relative to total national income. Very little work has been done to analyze how patterns of wealth transfer taxation affect the extent of these transfers across countries and across households within countries. This systematic compilation of tax data will provide researchers a crucial tool for scholarship and policy analysis focused on the behavioral effects of wealth taxes.