Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.

Although estate and gift taxes raise a small fraction of federal revenues, they have become sources of increasing political controversy. This book is designed to inform the current policy debate and build a conceptual basis for future scholarship. The book contains eleven original studies of estate and gift taxes, along with discussants' comments. The essays provide background and historical information; analyze the optimal taxation of estates and gifts; examine the effects of the tax on charitable contributions, saving behavior, the distribution and level of wealth, tax avoidance and tax evasion; and explore the effects of alternatives to estate taxation.

This anthology is designed to be used both as a source of supplemental readings in the estate and gift tax course and as a primary text in tax policy seminars. In selecting the materials included in this book, the editors sought to emphasize the classic writing in the field while at the same time include a sampling of recent tax scholarship.