Quote:
Originally Posted by Baltar  Certainly people who didn't earn the money don't inherently deserve it. However, this is a moral issue and I don't think the government has a right to take the money for that particular reason. A person can give their money to anyone (while they're alive) without being hit with an estate tax, right? |
Not exactly. In general, you can give away $1 million during your lifetime. After that, gifts are subject to the gift tax, which is generally designed to work in sync with the estate tax. I.e., the gift tax is the lifetime version of the estate tax.