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When you die, your estate pays taxes on the current value of the assets you’re passing along. Without stepped up basis, your heirs would get taxed again on gain
by beervirus 5y ago
When you die, your estate pays taxes on the current value of the assets you’re passing along. Without stepped up basis, your heirs would get taxed again on gains that you essentially already paid a 40% tax on.
- bradleyjg 5y agoI think it would be perfectly reasonable to reset the basis on any asset which had 40% estate taxes paid on it, but that’s now how the law is written. Not only is there an $11 million lifetime exemption there’s also an annual gift tax exclusion that combined with some clever trust setups allow the wealthy to pass on much more than that without paying the 40%. In practice huge amounts of capital gains are not taxed by either the capital gains tax or the estate tax.
- beervirus 5y agoThe yearly gift tax exclusion is peanuts for a billionaire. The 11 million almost rounds to zero too.
- koheripbal 5y agoNeither of your points impact Billionaires. They are meant to save small business owners.
- bradleyjg 5y agoEliminating the step up basis would have no impact on small businesses owners so long as they remain owners.
- notfromhere 5y agoTaxes happen when money changes hand, it’s not something out of the ordinary.
- beervirus 5y agoI agree. I’m just talking about whether stepped up basis is fair or unfair.
- bialpio 5y agoCorrect, exactly the same way as if you'd realized some gain a day before your death. Your heirs are also taxed again on the money you earned as a regular income. This is more of an argument against estate tax, not against step-up-basis.