| Summary: | Despite high and rising levels of wealth inequality, many advanced democracies have cut taxes on inherited
wealth in recent decades. To explain this puzzle, we argue that taxing inherited wealth is politically difficult
because, paradoxically, the people who have the strongest material interest in higher taxes, low-wealth renters,
are those least likely to express a clear opinion. Instead, the political terrain is shaped by the preferences of
homeowners, and their children, who have a strong material interest in lower inheritance taxes. Empirically, we
first evaluate this argument using original survey data from the United Kingdom. In two survey experiments,
we then examine how exposure to information influences views on inheritance taxation. While we find no
effect of providing statistical information about the distribution of housing wealth, preferences are influenced
by explanatory information that explicitly outlines the potential effects of inheritance taxation.
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