In 2017, estate and gift taxes comprised 0.7% of the taxes collected by the federal government. Between 1968 and 2017, these taxes ranged from 0.3% to 2.6% of federal revenues, with the median and average both being 1.2%. The modern federal estate tax was first enacted in 1916, and per the IRS, it "was to serve the dual purposes of producing revenue and redistributing wealth."