Inheritance tax: On Wednesday, Indian Overseas Congress President Sam Pitroda said something about inheritance tax that created a political uproar in India in the midst of Lok Sabha elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party got another chance to attack the Congress. On the other hand, Sam Pitroda presented clarification regarding his statement. You must have already seen and read what happened at the political level. Here we are giving you detailed information about the same inheritance tax, what it is, when and how it is imposed and how much it is.
Inheritance tax is actually a tax that is levied on property, but it is not a property tax. Mainly, inheritance tax is often mentioned in America. According to the American definition, it is the tax that is levied on the property that is to be received by the heirs after the death of a person. The special thing is that this tax is levied before the transfer of the inherited property.
In America, the rate of this tax is 40 percent. This means that whatever a person earns in his entire life, his heirs cannot get it all. Suppose, there is property worth Rs 1 crore, which is given to the heirs. After the death of the person, before the property is transferred to the heirs, a tax of Rs 40 lakh will be levied on that property. This means that the heirs will get only property worth Rs 60 lakh. If the number of heirs is 2 or 3, then tax will be levied according to the amount of property coming in the share of each one.
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How much tax in which country
| Country | Tax |
| Japan | 55% |
| South Korea | 50% |
| Germany | 50% |
| France | 45% |
| England (UK) | 40% |
| America (US) | 40% |
| Spain | 34% |
| Ireland | 33% |
Why is inheritance tax levied?
Now the question arises that why such heavy taxes are imposed by the government in many countries? The main purpose of the government to impose such taxes is to generate revenue. When the government gets money, it will be able to spend more on development work and the country will progress.
Another objective of the government is to distribute more capital in the society. Governments of many countries want that all the capital should not remain in the hands of a few people. This is called Wealth Redistribution. Bhudan movement was run in India from 1948 to 1952. Its founder was Vinoba Bhave. At that time many people of India had voluntarily donated their land.
When and why was this tax removed from India
Inheritance tax is no longer levied in India. It was abolished in 1985 during the Rajiv Gandhi government. The then finance minister V.P. Singh was of the opinion that it failed to bring balance in society and reduce the wealth gap, though its intentions were good.
