(ProPublica) — “The Republican proposal will not only allow them to pass millions (or billions) to their heirs without inheritance taxes, it will also add another benefit on top of that.” This column was co-published with The Washington Post.
There are times that you run across something that’s so preposterous that it’s hard to believe it’s true. But in this case, it is.
I’m talking about the multiple — and permanent — set of tax breaks that some of the Trump administration’s mega-wealthy appointees and their heirs stand to get if the estate tax repeal in the House Republicans’ tax bill becomes law.
The appointees I’m talking about are those with a net worth above $11 million (which is a lot of them) who sold assets that the Office of Government Ethics said would pose conflict-of-interest problems in their new gigs.
. . . under the Republican plan’s estate tax repeal, not only would heirs collect everything tax-free, but they would also get a tax-free basis step-up in the assets they inherit. By contrast, when the estate tax was repealed for a year in 2010 as part of the George Bush tax cut bill, the step-up in basis was largely negated, which stopped heirs from getting a mega-windfall.
Click to read the complete story. By Allan Sloan