Taxed to Death, Then Taxed in Death

There’s been a fair bit of talk lately about imposing an inheritance tax—a so-called “death tax.” Advocates present it under the guise of fairness and equality, but nothing could be further from the truth.

At its core, such a proposal is rooted in envy. It is the legalisation of theft, dressed up in the language of compassion. The message behind it is simple: “If I cannot have it, no one can.” It prefers equal misery over unequal prosperity.

Of course, not all wealth is virtuous, and not all poverty is sinful. The Bible itself recognises that some wealth is ill-gotten. Yet there is also a general principle: when people live within the bounds of God’s law—working diligently, stewarding wisely—there is blessing. The attempt to strip families of the fruit of such labour is an assault not merely on economics but on the moral order itself.

The government has a simple role: punish wrongdoing, reward what is good. In practice, this means discouraging destructive behaviour while encouraging productivity and virtue.

But when government punishes the very things that build society—hard work, creativity, enterprise—what is the result? Less work, less creativity, less enterprise. Why go the extra mile, work the extra hour, or take the risk to create, if the state stands ready to confiscate every gain? Such policies destroy incentive and, with it, the drive to build, save, and provide for future generations.

It’s no accident that these ideas are most loudly championed by the least productive members of society—politicians, pundits, and bureaucrats. They do not build, invent, or create; they survive by leeching off the productivity of others. The politician, in particular, is the supreme example of this: he produces nothing, only confiscates, redistributes what others have produced, and then congratulates himself for his remarkable display of generosity and altruism. Such people are the last we should trust to decide how our hard-earned wealth is earned, kept, or spent.

But to the politician, especially one who favours “Big Government,” nothing is more detestable than genuinely productive, independent people. The reason is simple: the more productive the people, the less reliant they are on the state.

The Bible tells us, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children…” (Prov. 13:22). Yet, an “inheritance tax” is a direct assault on that effort. While it promises equal wealth, it can only deliver equal poverty, and thus, equal dependence on the government.

An “inheritance tax” punishes foresight, penalises responsibility, and undermines a family’s efforts to ensure future generations are free of financial enslavement to the state.

That’s why it is always in Big Government’s interest to keep as many people down as possible. The government’s power is in proportion to the people’s dependence on it. Hence, they’ll forever be in search of a pretext for confiscating more of your hard-earned income.

Excessive taxation doesn’t bring justice or fairness. It breeds resentment, rewards envy, and destroys the very conditions under which human flourishing is possible. It won’t just kill wealth, it’ll kill everything necessary to create and maintain a functioning society.

We’ve said it before, there should be a seriously low cap on how much money a government can legally take from the public before being forced to concede they’re simply not able to do the job they’ve been tasked with. Excessive taxations exist to fund the campaign promises and fix the mistakes of inept and incompetent politicians, their bloated governments, and bureaucrat mates.

In Australia, one in five workers is a government-employed, “public servant.” As such, the burden of electing an already bloated and ineffective government invariably falls on the hardworking populace, seldom on the incompetent politicians themselves. Thomas Sowell aptly said, “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” And that, we’ve done.

In the end, to be taxed to death, and then taxed in death, is not just an attack on family wealth, but on work, responsibility, and freedom itself—and when governments punish those virtues, they do not build nations, they bankrupt them.