Because passing down wealth to the next generation is something only responsible people are capable of... And the government does everything they can to discourage responsibility.

Very simple. You inherited something and I want 1/3 and there's not a fucking thing that you can do about it!

Initially it was to prevent the top 1% wealth families from from a loophole to not pay taxes on cash and land. Now it’s a way all of us to pay for social programs.

According to the IRS:

The federal government does not have an inheritance tax. The six states that impose an inheritance tax are:

Iowa Kentucky Maryland Nebraska New Jersey Pennsylvania

Inheritance taxes are yet another means for states to get revenue that they can then spend on budget items. At least, in theory. In reality it's another way for them to avoid having to be fiscally responsible with the taxes they already collect.

It prevents the middle class from developing generational wealth. That is why the rich have alm their holdings in corporations. Corporations are legal persons who never die.

Joke answers aside a big part of the jewish problem is generational wealth. Since jews are rent seekers who never work they just keep building up a bigger and bigger share of the resources and make it impossible for anyone to earn their way up. It stifles innovation.

NSDAP wanted everyone to work even if it was intellectual work, since it makes you a better person, as part of that plan they had effectively at 100% inheritance tax on what would be, in today's money, anything over $1mil.

In game theory, if you start with more capital, you'll - practically speaking - win out every time. So to avoid an entrenched class system that will widen overtime, tax inheritance allows the country to not be lord over by a group of generational billionaires/trillionaires that you can't get rid off.

That's in theory. In practice those you'd want to prevent from lording over you can hide their money and continue to lord over you for ever.

Originally imposed as a populist method of preventing massive amounts of "inherited wealth" which was seen as corrupting and evil. Expanded to the point that a farmer can't pass the farm on to children due to large amount of cash demanded by the Fedgov at transfer, so the farm is sold to a large corporation and the kids get a part of the sale price. Lots of people use trusts to pass property down one or even two generations, including the very wealthy against whom the tax was originally directed. The small business owner who dies without putting the business into a trust with the kids gets bought out upon death, part of the money to the Fedgov, the rest to the kids. "Down with the wealthy!"