States and death taxes
Washington finally declared a truce on the death tax this year, with estates now taxed at 40 percent with an exemption of $5 million.
President Obama insisted on preserving this tax to spread the wealth, though it raises less than 2 percent of federal revenue and discourages lifetime savings, as even a 1981 study by Mr. Obama’s former chief economist, Larry Summers, showed.
Now the death-tax debate has shifted to state capitals, with mixed results depending on which party runs the state.