Am I allowed to tease you for being old enough to forget what I just said?
But seriously, and to address IT specifically: there was a lady on the radio the other day saying you could easily recoup it by just making the recipients pay tax on large gifts. That way people who already have lots of money pay more for receiving large gifts (based on their tax brackets) and those who have less pay less. This would also encourage smaller donations to more people.
It seemed an interesting proposal, because the outcome is largely the same. But whereas currently people object to the government taxing people for dying, they might not so much object if the tax were paid by the living.