John,
It all depends on how much Intel you have. Remember, estate tax rates are a lot higher than those on capital gains. Nine years ago, my mother died, leaving a reasonably large estate. My brothers and I did indeed enjoy a stepped-up cost basis on the stocks we inherited- after the government took its 55% share. Last year, my wife passed away. She had a rather modest stock portfolio- but you'd be surprised how rapidly an estate can grow when cars, jewelry, IRAs (which I disclaimed as I was worth far more than my wife and I wanted everything that could to go to my kids), etc. are thrown in. I was amazed at the size of the checks I had to write to the US/ NY governments. If the cost, rather than the current value, of her stocks had been used to determine the size of the estate, we might have avoided estate taxes entirely.
Of course, no tax at all in both cases, would have been far preferable!
Regards,
2MacLean |
