2.4.14 A means for the abolition of the intestate inheritance

Writers have advocated that death taxes facilitate the abolition of intestate inheritance as to all but the closest relatives. West noted that the operation of intestate inheritance between distant relatives could be viewed as irrational and useless. The family consciousness extends scarcely further than to cousins-german,1 and there is no good reason for extending rights of inheritance to the more remote degrees of relationship. However, since it is difficult to fix a precise point at which they should cease altogether, it is perhaps more equitable to take away these rights from some relatives only in part, by an inheritance tax graduated according to relationship and rising to a high percentage in the case of distant relatives.2

This justification relates, in my view, to the windfall justification and, more specifically, to the aspect relating to the protection of the family property.