Tax Commission v. Rife

It is well settled that an inheritance or succession tax is not a tax upon the property itself, but upon the right to succeed to the property. It is not the right to transmit, but the right and privilege to receive, that is taxed. The act of Congress of the United States known as the War Risk Insurance Act, and certain other provisions of particular importance in the determination of the question presented by this record, are here properly set forth, in part:

“If the designated beneficiary does not survive the insured or survives the insured and dies prior to receiving all of the two hundred…