Law Commons^™

Advocating A Carryover Tax Basis Regime, Richard Schmalbeck, Jay A. Soled, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Notre Dame Law Review

For close to a century, an important (but unfortunate) feature of the Internal Revenue Code has been a rule that the tax basis of any inherited asset is made equal to its fair market value at the time of the decedent’s death. Notwithstanding the substantial revenue losses associated with this rule, Congress has retained it for reasons of administrative convenience.

But from three different vantage points, pressure has been mounting to change what is commonly referred to as the “step-up in basis rule.” First, politicians and commentators have historically tied the step-up in basis rule to the estate tax on …