Hacker News Reader

Comment by missedthecue | Hacker News Reader

They do pay capital gains, even if a loan differs it. If the individual dies before repaying the loan, their estate pays a tax rate much higher than capital gains as it cashes out assets to settle its debts.

I'm not sure how, but the "margin debt is an infinite free money hack" somehow caught on and won't go away. It's not a free money hack, it's debt that must be repaid with income. Which is always taxable.

View on HN

Nope.. It IS a free money hack for the wealthy. The stepped up basis happens the day of your death. So when the estate sells assets to cover the liabilities, the profit of the sale will be calculated by subtracting the new stepped up basis from the sale price (effectively $0) so no tax.

Additionally, the wealthy will usually leave only enough assets in the estate to cover the liabilities plus maybe some more up to the estate tax threshold so it goes through tax free to the heirs. The rest will have been distributed through various other methods to avoid taxation.

Do I understand correctly that you're basically saying low inheritance taxes are (most of) the justification for wash sale rules?

No, I don't think inheritance tax factors in here that much. Wash sale rules don't really apply when using the step up basis loophole.

I'm not sure how it works in the US , but there are plenty other jurisdictions were the estate is not required to settle debt but may just transfer it to the heir.

There is also jurisdictions were there is no inheritance tax, which would otherwise require to sell at least some of the estate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com