Now that Treasurer Jim Chalmers has put reducing intergenerational inequality on his bucket list, everybody's talking about inheritance tax again.

Australia once had death duties - a state-based tax on estates - until Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen abolished them in 1977, declaring that people should be free to leave their assets to their families without penalty. Other states quickly followed suit to prevent an exodus of retirees to Queensland.

After years of political quiet on this front, a national "death tax" is back on the agenda. Several converging forces - fiscal strain, wealth concentration and inequality - are driving it.

The nation's finances are under increasing pressure as the proportion of taxpayers in the population dwindles. With defence, health, aged care, housing and infra

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