Compounded tax treatment of inheritances keeps the racial wealth gap resilient.

Evidence

A lifetime of lower earnings and fewer benefits in the workplace leads to disparities in savings, retirement contributions, and investment opportunities, of course. But that alone isn’t the problem. When these opportunities are compounded with the tax treatment of inheritances and gifts—which affect each of these life-cycle events, such as college and homebuying, on a generational basis—we can truly begin to see how and why the black-white racial wealth gap remains so resilient. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 421