The Federal Estate Tax: History, Law, and Economics - Paperbackby David Joulfaian (Author) A comprehensive and accessible account of the U. S. estate tax, examining its history and evolution, structure and inner workings, and economic consequences. Governments have been levying some form of inheritance tax since the ancient Egyptians did so in the seventh century BC. In the United States, the federal government experimented with various forms of inheritance taxes, settling on an estate tax in 1916 and a gift tax