re: Capital Gains at Death

quote:

---

As for as the person who said my idea would make it almost impossible for assets to be sold because of the tax consequences, that, to me, is not as important as today's system which almost forces some heirs to sell assets in order to pay taxes.

Choosing to keep assets is better than forced to sell, IMO.

---

I don't disagree, I wasn't trying to argue that estate taxes are better than carrying over a basis.

My comment was the OPs point that estate taxes at current levels being effectively zero for most estates. With even minimal estate planning it isn't hard to keep an estate under $10MM on paper. Anyone having to sell property to pay estate taxes under current law is either absurdly wealthy or had a terrible, terrible accountant, and either way while I'm not endorsing current practices I'm just not very sympathetic.

Basically, I just think its bad for an elderly person to hold onto something he doesn't really want just because he bought it for cheap, and I also think its bad for someone to hold on to an asset they don't really want just because their great-great-grandfather bought it for cheap.

So, I am against everything and everyone is wrong.