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Comment by koheripbal | Hacker News Reader

And? What's wrong with that? There's no free lunch there - they still have to pay back the loan. It's not like it's free money.

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You don't necessarily have to pay back the loan until your death, then it is taken from the estate and the balance passed on to heirs. At that point the step up basis occurs and the process starts over again. No taxes were paid on the value of the loan. (Correct me if wrong on this)

No tax perhaps, but interest has to be paid.

Of course, in a ZIRP fantasyland the interest is negligible.

If the choice is 40% tax or 2% interest...

I mean, long term rate is 20%, so taking a margin loan at 2% to finance consumption is a bet that you have less than 10 years to go…

That's assuming the asset that would've been sold doesn't increase in value. It's likely that the asset will increase in value more than the cost of the loan.

You are conflating assets and liabilities. Are you really suggesting people pay taxes on their liabilities?

That would be insane.

That’s one of those things that seems too dumb to possibly be true, but it looks like it is? An estate can sell stocks in probate with cost basis set to date of death, not purchase? Sort of makes sense, the heirs would get the stepped-up basis, the stocks, and the debt if the executor didn’t net them out in probate.

I guess it’s a bet you’ll be dead before the interest outweighs the potential tax, or volatility spikes? Betting on your own death seems to macabre, and too tempting too the fates.

For ultra-high net worth individuals it's a pretty safe strategy. Typically a low volatility equity that doesn't pay dividends is used and only a small percentage of their portfolio is used.

Over the long run it tends to work in their favour as well, since it's very likely that the increase in the portfolio value will outpace the interest paid.

> increase in the portfolio value will outpace the interest paid

Ah, right. Caught me twice on my fixed-pie thinking :)

You pay off the interest with the 40k of equities you can liquidate in 0% capital gains bracket, per year.

And yes, a bet that interest rates will remain below effective tax beyond that.

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