Beneficiaries inheriting land will continue to pay property taxes. Whatever is produced and sold using the land will continue to be taxed. The funds used by the deceased to acquire the land are already circulating in the economy.
The money used by the deceased to acquire assets that will be inherited such as securities (CDs, stocks, bonds) or personal possessions (art, autos, furniture) is already circulating in the economy and available for use to pay for college tuition, higher minimum wages, or for any other reason the holder of those funds may choose. The taxes paid on those transactions has already been sent to the government, which has more than likely spent it in accordance with somebody's philosophical idea of what is "right".
Any cash asset held (by the deceased then by the beneficiary) is most likely in a bank, which is lending that money out for productive purposes. The money typically isn't in a Folger's can in the back yard. The cash borrowed from the bank is used to buy building materials, autos, homes, machinery, fund tuition loans, etc., all of which have associated taxes (sales tax, income tax, capital gains tax, social security and unemployment tax on the employees and employers that produced the goods). Once those items are purchased, the seller pays the associated taxes and expenses, and deposits the remaining funds in a bank where they are loaned out again, and the cycle is repeated over and over. Regardless, the transactions are taxed.
The only way to accumulate wealth is to save your cash or buy assets that increase in value. Regardless of which you choose, the money is still available for use in the economy either from you purchasing the asset (at which time the seller either spends the money or banks it), or putting the cash in a bank that will loan the funds.
The estate tax is no more than the government acting like a stockbroker that is churning a client's account for additional fees. The government forces the sale of assets, and acts as a redistributor of cash. It punishes those that have saved, and benefits those that have not. The estate tax, like all taxes, curtails the freedom of any American (including Americans that plan on giving their assets to their children or any beneficiary they choose) forced to pay the tax. The tax doesn't add money to the economy, it just moves it around in an inefficient manner. The government is forcing you to sell something to pay a tax, as opposed to you having the freedom to sell it whenever you wish. If you want less freedom, support the estate tax. If you value a social program more than your freedom, support the estate tax. If you are okay with taxing someone else but not paying the tax yourself, go f yourself.
Ultimately, however, the most efficient, innovative, frugal, and hardest working individuals will again accumulate the wealth, and the government will again feel the need to tax those individuals to subsidize the "less than hardest working Americans" (needy children, orphans, the handicapped, and elderly are specifically excluded from this group). This will continue as long as we elect the "social engineers" that feel like the government, despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, can make better economic decisions spending someone else's money (with virtually no threat of penalty for their screw-ups) than the individuals that had to work to earn the money.
