Abi Wilkinson is a freelance journalist based in London writing about politics, inequality, gender, popular culture, and anything else that takes her fancy. She normally writes in the Guardian which likes articles about gender ( fluid, natch) and politics as long as they involve money tree worshipping and or/smashing the even half rich. Abi's latest piece really is peak stupidity in thus summer of left wing madness. Abi reckons that what we need is a 100% inheritance tax.
Of course Abi admits that she opposed the Tories wicked and evil dementia tax plan. The idea that folks who have money should pay for their own care was appalling and shows what bastards the Tories are. Everyone should be cared for from cradle to grave in the world of Abi it is just that at the graveside all that they have worked for and paid taxes on one time around should be taken away by the State to feed the money tree. 
Abi notes that £77 billion is passed on each year by those going to the great worker's hall in the sky and she is sure that the number is actually higher but some rich bastards are engaging in tax avoidance. And that could easily pay for the NHS to have all the money it wants, a flourishing welfare state and all the other things that the Money Tree needs to support. So, in Abi land, there is a moral case for inheritance tax, the second tax on money that has already been taxed, being raised to 100%.
Abi says why should the heirs of the deceased get their hard earn savings as they have no moral claim to it? Well surely the wishes of the deceased count for something? Not for Abi for ultimately she thinks the State knows better how cash should be spent than those who actually earned ( and paid tax) on that cash and so the moral choice id for the state to take that cash and hand it out to those dependent on the Money Tree for survival.
A starting point in pointing out the insanity of Abi's plans is that relative;ly little is raised by IHT as things stand. The £650,000 threshold means that outside the property bubble of London and the South East relatively few folks have to pay any IHT at all. Those with the biggest estates - the super rich who pay the vast majority of income tax - often use legal tax planning to avoid this double dip on the fruits of their labour. So it is only middle class folk in the South East who actually pay a cent.
In short Abi is right that the system does not work well. I go further: it is unfair since it is a double dip that only hits some folks. The logical conclusion is thus that IHT should be scrapped altogether but those with far lower savings than £650,000 should have no access to the state pension, free bus passes and should have to pay for their own care. Let's bring in a dementia tax now. Welfare and the NHS should be a safety net not a way for the rich to pass on even more at the expense of lower earning taxpayers!
Back to Abi's crazy world. A 100% IHT would raise nowhere near £77 billion. Instead of just the super rich looking to minimise their exposure almost everyone would. Let's all move to Greece, France, Spain, anywhere to spend our declining years. Why now? Not only would the State lose its IHT it would lose years of income tax as well and the economy would lose some valuable customers. Those who don't like the sun would just start transferring wealth at an early stage, use trusts and other legal routes to dodge the taxman. Those who hate their kids would spend even more on wine, women and Viking River Cruises.
In her naivete Abi reckons that some folks will want to spend even more time on the post retirement wine, women and Viking River Cruises phase of their life so will retire early so "creating a job" for a young person which is a good thing. Only someone who has never seen how a small business works but who has spent their short adult life prattling to other members of the middle classes imagines that the world works that way.
For many of us when we have had enough we just shut down our business. That is something that will probably add to young folks without not work, not reduce it. Of course there will be some one in one out job switches but Abi's view on this and on the whole matter of how life really works is just simplistic.
100% IHT will raise nowhere near £77 billion. It will however see income tax and VAT receipts slashed. It is not only an immoral suggestion but just a mad and bad one that will just not work.