"Death and Taxes" is a 2024 documentary film exploring the complex, deeply personal, and politically charged issues of wealth inequality and the American Dream. The story is told through the lens of filmmaker Justin Schein's own family, capturing the decades-long fixation of his father, a successful CEO, on avoiding the estate tax.

Interweaving intimate home videos with insights from prominent experts across the political spectrum, the film reveals how the father's obsession nearly tore his family apart. Beyond this singular family drama, the film widens its focus to examine the broader American tax system and the ways inherited wealth perpetuates racial and economic inequity. By putting a human face on the estate tax debate—often called the "death tax"—Death and Taxes offers a timely and personal meditation on the cost of privilege and what kind of legacy America leaves for future generations.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

In many ways my father’s life embodied the American Dream. Growing up a New Deal Democrat in a poor immigrant family during the Great Depression, he rode the postwar boom to great success and then embraced the fiscal conservatism of Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts.

Like any parent, he wanted the fruits of his labor to be passed down for generations, starting with me and my brother.

But reducing his taxes became his obsession, as it is for so many. And now the dream he lived has become harder to achieve.

The economic inequality of the Gilded Age has returned. The richest 0.01% of Americans now own almost as much as the bottom 90%, and six of the ten wealthiest Americans inherited their fortunes. The Walmart heirs alone hold as much wealth as the bottom 42% of Americans combined.