And to be fair, that last bit is simply the US tax system: If you can lawyers and accountants, you might not pay much tax. Unfortunately, change requires congressional action and folks working together.

The outrage is that it's a trap for the unwary. Billionaires don't pay it but family businesses who didn't realize they had assets in excess of the threshold do, or people who die young before doing the preparation.

If you can avoid it just by hiring an accountant then it shouldn't exist.

In practice it's just a big f you to anyone who's parents live out of state and die owning their home and didn't have the foresight to put it in trust or sign it over to the kid(s) prior to dying.

There is no justifiable purpose for this tax other than revenue. Property out of state has zero cost to the people of the state. It's a pure money grab and it's only affecting the middle class (because anyone who can justify the cost of estate planning will not be subject to this tax).

Edit: I'd be curious to see why people find this comment so disagreeable? Or is it just ideologically inconvenient to point this stuff out?

Isn’t this the alleged purpose for all taxes?

:-/

Dying is actually subsidized for people with less than that who have unrealized capital gains, unless I understand the system wrong.