[prirun]

I've posted several times that this is a dumb idea, because if they tax unrealized capital gains every year, they're also going to have to issue tax credits for capital losses every year. Which works out to being the same thing as taxing capital gains when the asset is sold.

I have no problem with them eliminating the stepped-up basis on inheritance of investments. IMO, the only reason they do this is because if you inherit stocks from your great grandmother, who knows what she paid for them? But with today's computer systems, tracking the basis through generations should not be a huge deal.

[toast0]

Brokers have only been required to properly track basis for shares for about ten years at this point. So there's still a lot of non-covered shares with not necessarily well kept basis.

There's also things like houses and land that records are likely to be iffy for. Especially because some improvements add to the basis, and who knows where grandma kept her files for improvements or if there's enough detail in there to say for sure.

It's definitely a loophole though, same with donating apprechiated capital property.