the.com/estate tax
the government's parting shot, taken after you've already left the building.
means a tax on the value of what you own when you die, paid by your estate before heirs get the rest.
from traces to ancient egypt and rome taxing property transfers at death, but the modern u.s. version dates to 1916, designed partly to curb dynastic wealth during the gilded age's robber baron hangover.
u.s. exemption 2024first $13.61 million per person is untouched
top rate40 percent on amounts above the exemption
nicknamedeath tax, coined to make it sound scarier
who paysfewer than 0.1 percent of estates owe anything