Estate Tax

I will be the first to admit I don't know any details of the law or the true pros or cons about the estate tax also referred to as the death tax. There was an article about it in the Post this morning. It's in the news because of George Steinbrenner's recent death. In 2010 because of Bush cuts there is no estate tax at all. The article talks about 4 other billionaires who have died in 2010.

While I am normally no fan of the mega rich or even the normal rich, in this case I don't think just because you've been successful your heirs should have to hand over what was left to them to the government.

In theory all the amassed money should have already been taxed. Correct? So taxing it again as the money changes hands from the deceased to their heir seems more than a bit wrong to me.

If the overall tax code was completely overhauled and simplified maybe it would solve the problems.