Miranda Perry Fleischer (San Diego), has published a new piece, A New Look at Old Money, 98 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1439 (2025) (reviewed by David Elkins here):
Taxing wealth—including inherited wealth—is a hot topic, making headlines and generating heated debate. Should millionaires and billionaires face an annual wealth tax, as championed by Senators and former presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders? Should we strengthen the existing estate tax, as former presidential candidate Kamala Harris urged? Or, as opponents argue, are both annual wealth and once-a-generation wealth transfer taxes unfair and impractical? What makes this debate so intractable is not only that the public as a whole is divided on these issues, but that also many individual Americans hold simultaneous beliefs about wealth, opportunity, fairness, desert, and family that seemingly contradict each other. This Article cuts through that debate by proposing a novel solution for inheritance taxation that reconciles these deeply held beliefs with the benefits of wealth transfer taxation.
Our current estate tax treats the self-made millionaire the same as an heiress who has not earned a cent when they pass their fortunes on to their heirs. But this is misguided. Drawing on recent work on the psychology of taxation, this Article makes the case for an innovative inheritance tax system that taxes old money more heavily than new. This approach would allow individuals to bequeath wealth that they have earned—but not wealth that they have inherited—free of tax. Known as a Rignano tax, this proposal harnesses the finding that many Americans “silo” beliefs about wealth, holding seemingly contradictory beliefs that differ in part based on whether wealth is earned or inherited. By leveraging these findings and building on experience with the existing transfer tax system, this Article elaborates and advances a set of specific and concrete design recommendations for a Rignano tax.
This comprehensive analysis of a Rignano tax—the first in the law review literature—complements philosophical work that advocates for such a tax but does not address key design and policy questions. Further, it contributes to tax scholarship by advancing our understanding of the relationship between a tax’s normative goals and structural design choices. And for both advocates and opponents of the estate tax, it offers a nuanced and fair exploration of the debate surrounding inheritance taxation as well as a potential resolution of the enduring stalemate over taxing wealth.
UPDATE (1/29/2026): Added link to TaxProf Blog review.
