[pbspelly]

Maybe I'm being obtuse, but I still don't quite see the reason for the step-up rule. Why not simply have a rule that heirs only have to pay the capital gains tax when they sell the asset? You inherit a stock worth $100,000 with a basis of $25,000, you don't have to pay any estate or inheritance tax (or it falls under a generous $11.7 limit), but if you sell the stock you have to pay tax for the $75,000 gains.

I personally benefited from the step-up rule when my father passed away, and I'll admit I did not voluntarily give the government any money. But even then I recognized that there was something wrong with the law. From a tax perspective, several years of capital gains on some stocks was just erased as if they had never happened.