In 2004, only eighteen 431 estate tax returns were filed. That was only .8% of all estates for the year. Many of those probably had surviving spouses so that there was no tax as a result of the unlimited marital deduction. The number of filers will decline as the exclusion increases. In New Jersey in 2005 only 733 federal estate tax returns were filed that owed tax (and NJ is a wealthy state). How evil is the death tax?