THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5775 Issue XXVI Parshas Tazria-Metzora The Death Tax and Avurei Achasanta Does the Torah Favor Such Taxes? By Rabbi Yitzchak Grossman

The Death Tax The Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives recently passed, on mostly party lines, a bill repealing the estate tax (“death tax”), although it is unclear that the bill can pass the Senate and will likely be vetoed by the President even if it does. One of the main arguments in favor of the tax is from the perspective of fairness; for example, liberal political economist Robert Reich has argued that tolerating the increasing concentration of wealth within a narrow segment of society is “unfair”, “unjust”, and “absurd". Opponents of the tax largely argue that the tax has deleterious economic and social effects, but also that it is an unfair attack on success and constitutes unjust double taxation. What is the Torah's perspective on such taxes? The question can obviously be approached from multiple angles; in this article we consider the implications of the halachic admonition against overriding the Torah's inheritance laws by stipulating an alternate disposition of one's property.