The tax helps close what would otherwise be gaping loopholes in the income tax with respect to capital gains and other items. The tax helps support the nonprofit sector by providing incentives to give to charity at precisely the time when people are distributing large amounts of wealth. The tax also helps provide equal opportunity by reducing the extent of huge inheritances. About 98 percent of deaths result in no estate taxes, its one-time burden at the time of death can be reduced with prudent estate planning devices such as life insurance and the tax is imposed on wealth, not on death itself. See additional Economic Studies research on Tax and Fiscal Policy.
All taxes impose burdens, and the estate tax is no exception.
All budgetary decisions reflect priorities, and eliminating the estate tax should be a lower priority than these and other claims on the national pocketbook. For all of these reasons, abolishing the tax is a bad idea. A much better strategy would be to reform the tax to emphasize its virtues and minimize its costs. This could be done by raising the exemption, closing loopholes, reducing rates modestly, and indexing the tax for inflation. This would focus the tax on the truly wealthy and at the same time make it simpler and fairer.