Singapore has steered away from estate taxes since the law change in 2008 but we are observing more talk of wealth taxes, property capital gains taxes and estate taxes. So how effective is it to declare an estate tax and see meaningful inflows? Data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US provides some insights. It also provides some data points on how rich America’s rich are. The modern estate tax was introduced in 1916 to help counter the growth of dynastic wealth. In 2018, the IRS collected more than $20 billion in estate tax from nearly 5,500 familiesIn 2020, the IRS collected $9.3 billion in estate tax from 1,275 wealthy families That is a dramatic fall of nearly 50% in the collection and a 77% fall in the number of wealthy households taxed. Eventually, only 0.04% of dying Americans paid estate taxes. IRS attributes this greatly to the...