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Tristyn Bloom
Matthew Cantirino
Anthony Esolen
Gene Fant
Greg Forster
Matthew J. Franck
Collin Garbarino
Robert P. George
William J. Haun
Leroy Huizenga
Katherine Infantine
Joseph Knippenberg
David T. Koyzis
Robert T. Miller
Matthew Milliner
David Mills
Mark Movsesian
William Mumma
Nathaniel Peters
R.R. Reno
James R. Rogers
Russell E. Saltzman
Matthew Schmitz
Kevin Staley-Joyce
David Talcott
Anna Williams
Ryan T. Anderson describes the impressive number of briefs that have been filed urging the Supreme Court to uphold Prop 8 and DOMA and elsewhere writes, with William Beach, that repealing the death tax is a better way to fix inheritance law than redefining marriage.
March 15th, 2013 | 11:52 am
Here in the UK, the usual defence of death duties is that they bring land onto the market.
Throughout the 19th century, landowners seldom sold building land to developers. They granted them long leases, typically 99 years, at the existing market rent, content that their heirs would reap the benefit of the improved value. Moreover such land was often held under strict settlements that meant it descended inexorably from eldest son to eldest son, with no one having the power to sell it.
There is no doubt that death duties, first introduced in 1906 have contributed to the break-up of large landed estates and to an increase of home ownership, an effect considerably mitigated by the ingenuity of lawyers. The 1874 Act forbidding rents index-linked to grain prices probably did as much or more.