The
estate tax in the
United States is a
tax imposed on the transfer of the "taxable
estate" of a deceased person, whether such property is transferred via a
will, according to the state laws of
intestacy or otherwise made as an incident of the death of the owner, such as a transfer of property from an
intestate estate or trust, or the payment of certain
life insurance benefits or financial account sums to beneficiaries. The estate tax is one part of the
Unified Gift and Estate Tax system in the United States. The other part of the system, the
gift tax, imposes a tax on transfers of property during a person's life; the gift tax prevents avoidance of the estate tax should a person want to give away his/her estate.
In addition to the federal government, many states also impose an estate tax, with the state version called either an estate tax or an
inheritance tax. Since the 1990s, opponents of the tax have used the pejorative term "death tax".[SUP]
[1][/SUP] The equivalent tax in the United Kingdom has always been referred to as "inheritance tax".