The organizer of the march (Derik) specifically spoke about buy, borrow, die in interviews with the press, and in his closing speech, as a loophole that exists and must be closed. The marchers were not without nuance (except Annie ofc.… >.>) I’m less concerned than most, partly because it requires a low-interest environment (this was a much bigger deal during the era of 0% interest rate) and partly because “die” is a crucial part of it. Seems like a losing strategy to me on it’s face, and one that won’t last much longer as we fix aging. But regardless, this can and probably should be fixed by eliminating the step-up basis on extremely large estates.
I think you’re underestimating how clever finance people can get, or the degree to which they can turn anything into a financial instrument. Holding a loan at a low but still attractive interest rate, secured by many times the value in diverse stocks, with no and/or token monthly payment that settles only with the debtor’s estate or on default? I think they could work with that and package it up without much difficulty.
But yeah, your fix is the obvious one, don’t let people update the basis of assets tax-free at inheritance, or at least cap the tax dodge in some way.
The organizer of the march (Derik) specifically spoke about buy, borrow, die in interviews with the press, and in his closing speech, as a loophole that exists and must be closed. The marchers were not without nuance (except Annie ofc.… >.>) I’m less concerned than most, partly because it requires a low-interest environment (this was a much bigger deal during the era of 0% interest rate) and partly because “die” is a crucial part of it. Seems like a losing strategy to me on it’s face, and one that won’t last much longer as we fix aging. But regardless, this can and probably should be fixed by eliminating the step-up basis on extremely large estates.
I think you’re underestimating how clever finance people can get, or the degree to which they can turn anything into a financial instrument. Holding a loan at a low but still attractive interest rate, secured by many times the value in diverse stocks, with no and/or token monthly payment that settles only with the debtor’s estate or on default? I think they could work with that and package it up without much difficulty.
But yeah, your fix is the obvious one, don’t let people update the basis of assets tax-free at inheritance, or at least cap the tax dodge in some way.