[RustyEarthfire]

The "already taxed by the estate tax" justification is ridiculous to start with. If you have unpaid income tax it doesn't get waived to avoid "double taxation"; certainly you don't get a refund on all the taxes already paid on your savings. But if you kick the can down the road long enough with unrealized gains then you get a special bonus?

[mindslight]

shrug that's just the way it was explained to me and it seems plausible. Long term capital gains is 15 or 20 percent, whereas the estate tax rate basically starts there and goes up to double. If someone never realizes their gains, then perhaps it makes sense to not be taxed on them. The loophole here is living people realizing their gains, but doing so using loans so they can avoid paying taxes on them.