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2024 / USA / 85 mins / English
DEATH & TAXES is a feature documentary about wealth, inequality and the American Dream, viewed through the lens of the estate tax and the very personal story of a father and son at odds over what kind of inheritance we want to leave our kids and our country.
TRAILER
SYNOPSIS
DEATH & TAXES is a feature documentary about wealth, inequality and the American Dream, viewed through the lens of the estate tax and the very personal story of a father and son at odds over what kind of inheritance we want to leave our kids and our country. Filmmaker Justin Schein’s father, Harvey Schein, liked to say he lived the so-called “American Dream”: rising from poverty in Depression-era Brooklyn to great financial success as one of America’s top CEOs of the 1970s. But Harvey Schein also spent the last 20 years of his life fixated on trying to keep his hard-earned wealth from the taxman—an obsession that almost broke the Schein family apart. More broadly, inherited wealth and the tax system that shields it have badly distorted American democracy, perpetuating racial and economic inequity in the country. Filmed over more than 20 years and weaving intimate family footage with interviews with prominent experts from all sides of the debate, DEATH & TAXES tells this crucial story through the tale of one American family.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
In many ways father’s life embodied the American Dream—growing up a New Deal Democrat in a poor immigrant family during the Great Depression, he rode he postwar boom to great success and then embraced the fiscal conservatism of Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts.
Like any parent, he wanted the fruits of his labor to be passed down for generations, starting with me and my brother.
But reducing his taxes became his obsession, as it is for so many. And now the dream he lived has become harder to achieve.
The economic inequality of the Gilded Age has returned. The richest 0.01% of Americans now own almost as much as the bottom 90%, and six of the ten wealthiest Americans inherited their fortunes. The Walmart heirs alone hold as much wealth as the bottom 42% of Americans combined.
America is set to transfer $100 trillion from one generation to the next—the largest transfer of wealth in history. The impact of this goes beyond economics to democracy itself. As Justice Louis Brandeis warned “you can have concentrated in the hands of a few—or you can have democracy, but you can't have both.”
At the heart of this issue is the estate tax- branded “the death tax” by conservatives. Critics argue it unfairly punishes those who worked hard and saved, while supporters, like Robert Reich, see it as a check on family dynasties that is essential for the health of the republic. Ironically, the tax affects just 0.02% of estates but faces strong opposition from those who will never pay it— despite the billions in revenue it generates for the country as a whole.
The fight against the estate tax gained traction with Reagan’s tax cuts and was fueled by wealthy donors and groups like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, as a billion-dollar industry of lawyers and accountants emerged to exploit loopholes. More recently, the Trump administration raised the exemption to a record $25 million for couples, further undermining the impact of the tax.
My family’s story gives me a unique lens on this issue. Death and Taxes explores examines whether it's fair to allow wealth to accumulate for the lucky few while inequality deepens, threatening democracy itself. Is the estate tax unjust double taxation or a necessary check on inherited privilege? And what does this mean for the American Dream?
DIRECTOR
Justin Schein
CO-DIRECTOR
Robert Edwards
PRODUCERS
Justin Schein
Robert Edwards
Yael Melamede
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Justin Schein
EDITORS
Purcell Carson
Brian Redondo
GRAPHICS
DAVID W. MESTER
ANIMATION
Roberto Biadi
COMPOSER
Bobby Johnston
THE ISSUES
The FEDERAL ESTATE TAX is a tax on a person’s assets after that person dies. This tax is paid on the value of these assets in excess of the amount exempted under law.
Sources: IRS, Nerd Wallet
The FEDERAL ESTATE TAX EXEMPTION is the amount of money and assets that an estate is allowed to pass on before it is subject to the Estate Tax. The current federal exemption amount is $13,999,000 for an individual and $27,998,000 for couples.
Sources: IRS, SmartAsset
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Example: If a couple was to leave an estate valued at $28,998,000, federal estate tax would be 40% of the one million that is over the exemption - coming to $400,000. Thus, after taxes, that couple would pass on $28,598,000 to their heirs.
The STATE ESTATE TAX is the tax states levy - on top of the federal estate tax - on assets people you leave when they you die. As of January 1, 2025, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Illinois, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Hawaii and the District of Columbia all levy estate taxes.
Source: SmartAsset
The STEPPED-UP BASIS: a provision in the tax code that allows the value of an asset to be reset to the value at the time of the death of the owner. Thus, an inheritor would not have to pay tax on any increase in value of that asset from the time it was originally purchased.
Source: Peter G. Peterson Foundation
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Example: If you were to purchase a home for $10,000 and its value were to increase to $110,000. If you were to sell that home while you were alive you would have to pay tax on that $100,000 increase in value. But if you were to die and leave it to your heirs - they would inherit it as the current (“stepped-up”) value - the profit would disappear and no taxes would be due.
WHO PAYS THE ESTATE TAX?
The 2017 tax law enacted under President Donald Trump has reduced the reach of the federal estate tax to historic lows. According to the IRS, less than 0.2% of estates annually are subject to the federal estate tax. In practical terms, this amounts to roughly 1,900 to 2,000 estates per year out of the millions of people who die annually in the U.S.
Estates valued at $50 million or more accounted for 6 percent of all taxable estates in 2018 and held 42 percent of assets reported by taxable estates in that year.
To put the number of estate tax returns filed in perspective, the Population Division of the Bureau of the Census estimates that about 2.8 million people died in 2022. An estate tax return will be filed for only about 0.25 percent of that number - i.e. affecting about 7,000 estates and only about 0.14 percent (3,920 estates) will pay any estate tax.
Sources: Tax Policy Center, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
HOW MUCH IS RAISED BY THE ESTATE TAX?
The revenue generated in 2023 amounted to 34 billion U.S. dollars.
Source: Statista
CONTACTS
FILMMAKERS
Shadowbox Films — justin@shadowboxfilms.com
Salty Features —info@saltyfeatures.com
SCREENINGS & SALES
Annie Roney — annie@rocofilms.com
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