Why illegally? Assuming a 100% estate tax, you could likely avoid it through legal means. I'm sure there are way more tricks for passing on your wealth and I'm

Why illegally? Assuming a 100% estate tax, you could likely avoid it through legal means. I'm sure there are way more tricks for passing on your wealth and I'm sure it's much more complicated than this, but: My first thought would to incorporate and have the corporation own all the wealth. You could hire family as employees and pay them in money and stock. Income taxes would have to be paid, but those are a lot lower than 100%. Any properties would be held by the corporation. Over time, you'd gift your shares to your children using the gift tax exemption. You'd secure contracts with your corporation for the exclusive use of your properties while you live, so even after you no longer have a controlling interest, you can't be removed from, say, your favorite mansion. These contracts would be expensive and payable on death, so when you died, your estate had to pay back the corporation. But the only thing you personally own is stock in the corporation. So the stock goes back to the corporation to pay your debts and the government gets nothing. So, rather than 100%, your effective tax rate would be some income taxes and whatever you couldn't manage to divest yourself of by the time you died. Voila. Your children just inherited all your stuff legally.