Death taxes in Maryland can apply to those still alive

The Examiner reports:

Who knows the true intentions of the dead? The taxman does, according to Maryland's Court of Special Appeals.

The court recently upheld earlier decisions that required a Montgomery County family to pay $138,518.53 in state inheritance taxes on gifts a rich uncle started giving a year and half before he died of a heart attack.

The case highlighted an unusual law in Maryland — and a few other states — that allows officials to determine that a gift from the dead was made to avoid taxes, even if made as much as two years before death.

The family of Dr. Edwin Cohn said he was "a vigorous man who had no thoughts of death when he made the gifts," according to court records.

Your estate is their salary increase. I think you know who "they" is.