Hopefully most people would agree that a society where you have to work hard to earn money is better than one where you can inherit it from mummy and daddy. The first reason for this is a simple question of rights to wealth, how can someone hold the right to wealth that they did not create. Many people criticise the idea that members of the royal family gain social status and wealth without any personal merit, surely this is the same thing?

Secondly this creates an incentive to earn. Relying on inherited income from parents is impossible, which incentivises even the richest in society to work hard and be a productive member of society. It's objectionable to see well-educated, well-brought-up people who can't be bothered to work, because they don't need to.

Ultimately income tax can only achieve a certain level of equality. If you tax people too much you disincentivise working hard and the economy collapses. Taxing people after they are dead is somewhat less of a disincentive to them working hard whilst they are living.

OK, some people don't like big government, but everyone likes not getting MRSA when they visit an NHS hospital.

Likewise better schooling, transport, cuts in existing taxes even more nukes to fend off the commies if that's what floats your boat.

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Please note that the title of this debate is 'inheritance tax' not income tax. I agree that 100% income tax would be insane, since there would be no incentive for anyone to earn money. Money earned from a 100% inheritance tax would always be less year on year than that earned from current taxes, that means a 100% inheritance tax does not require raising the overall level of tax.

Admittedly there are lots of other ways to pass on inequality to children, pay for them to go to Eton, drip feed them cash while you're still alive or simply set them up with contacts in your chosen field. But the most effective remains to leave them a lump sum of cash when you die, this simply prevents that. Furthermore we already have plenty of clever ways to stop people evading the current 40% tax, we simply need to extend them.

You also can't emmigrate to avoid the tax, everyone born in the UK gets hit. That's perfectly possible, US emmigrants still have to pay income tax to the US government, this would work in the same way. Admittedly leaving the country before you have children prevents them getting hit, but does anyone honestly have the foresight to emmigrate in order to decrease their deceased future children's tax liabilities. I thought not.

Government needs income. Question becomes where to get the money. Better to get it from dead people than from the living.

Since you have to collect tax anyway, it makes sense to collect first from the dead, then from the rich, then from the poor. That's the most progressive.