Keeping the inheritance tax

Sir, – I was bemused to see that Alan Shatter decided the best use of his considerable intellect is to dismantle inheritance tax in Ireland ( “Alan Shatter hasn’t ‘given thought’ to election bid as he seeks revolt over inheritance tax”, News, September 17th).

Let’s face it, we’d all like to pay less tax. But with €500 million a year generated from the tax, it pays for a lot of critical services. Far from unfortunate victims, people who pay the tax have not earned the money. If a child inherits €350,000 they keep it all. If they inherit a million they keep nearly €800,000. And it’s hard to shed tears for someone who’ll inherit many millions. Better to think of it as a farewell gift to the society that supported and enabled them, and those that inherit from them.

We should probably significantly increase the tax over a threshold to avoid indolence among the nepo-baby wealthy and encourage them to be value creators not rentiers. – Yours, etc,

DERMOT CASEY,