Gifts and inheritances have been income-tax-free since 1913 with no policy justification

Evidence

The tax-free family transfer—which allows the transfer and receipt of gifts and inheritances free of income taxes—has been in place since 1913, when the first Revenue Act created the progressive tax system. There’s no legislative history explaining how the policy came to be, and tax scholars agree that it defies logic, citing “no good tax policy reason for excluding gifts, or inheritances” from taxable income. Nonetheless, it has contributed to more than a century of wealth building for those whose family members have ample resources to share with them. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 464

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: A core building block in the reader’s goal: a specific named provision (tax-free family transfer) with its origin date — usable as one of the four race-neutral provisions.
• QUESTION: Why is a provision with ‘no good tax policy reason’ and no legislative history still on the books after a century? Who benefits enough to protect it?