Despite majority of HN thinking otherwise, there is world outside of US. Here in the UK the threshold for the inheritance tax is £325,000, and unless you live in a 2 bedroom apartment or a very small house in the countryside, you will most definitely hit it, which means that most people in the UK will have to pay inheritance tax on their family homes once their parents die. This is wrong in my opinion.

This article says the average home value is £187,000:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/03/uk-average-hous...

The tax is apparently 40%. So the heirs of a single person with a home worth twice the average will owe £11,600 in taxes (it looks like some of the exemption is transferable for couples, so ~0 taxes for lots of people).

It doesn't seem so onerous for people receiving a $600,000 house to have to pay $20,000 in taxes (it's certainly an amount that most owners of such houses will be able to plan for).

Then maybe there's a case for increasing the limit in UK tax policy, or perhaps granting a special exemption for family homes.

It's not a case for totally eliminating estate taxes.