Imagine two friends. Anna inherits nothing and works for every penny she has, while Mary inherits millions. How should a world that respects individual autonomy and private property rights treat Anna’s earnings and Mary’s inheritance? Should it tax them the same, or tax one more heavily than the other? If the latter, which one? The conventional wisdom holds that although some “right” libertarian theories justify taxing income, none justify taxing inheritances. Such taxes are “expropriations” and “an especially cruel injury” that “run[] roughshod over [a] deceased’s interest in the ends his property will serve.” This essay explores the standard libertarian objections to taxing gifts and bequests and argues that libertarians overstate their case when distinguishing the taxation of gratuitous transfers from other types of taxation. At minimum, the benefit theory of taxation embraced by many minimal statists and classical liberals mandates that the receipt of gifts and bequests should be taxed to the recipient. Moreover, the goals of curbing inherited political power and preventing wealthy families from insulating their members from market competition provide two additional explanations for why taxing inheritances to recipients is compatible with classical liberal values.

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死亡与税收：自由主义者的重新评估

想象一下两个朋友。安娜什么也没继承，她用自己的每一分钱工作，而玛丽则继承了数百万美元。一个尊重个人自主权和私有财产权的世界应该如何对待安娜的收入和玛丽的遗产？应该对它们征同样的税，还是对其中一个征税比另一个征税更重？如果是后者，是哪一个？传统观点认为，尽管一些“正确的”自由主义理论证明对收入征税是合理的，但没有一个理论证明对遗产征税是合理的。此类税收是“征用”和“特别残酷的伤害”，“粗暴地践踏死者对其财产所服务的利益”。本文探讨了自由意志主义者对赠与和遗赠征税的标准反对意见，并认为自由主义者在区分无偿转移税与其他类型的税收时夸大了他们的观点。至少，许多最低限度国家主义者和古典自由主义者所信奉的税收利益理论要求，接受礼物和遗赠时应对接受者征税。此外，限制继承的政治权力和防止富裕家庭使其成员免受市场竞争的目标为为什么向接受者征遗产税与古典自由主义价值观相容提供了两个额外的解释。