# Estate tax? What threshold is too high? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 23, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100 "2026-10-23T18:10:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/21 "2026-10-24T14:54:14Z")
What’s so unfair? Everything that seems so unfair when it’s someone who’s not struggling can be a godsend to someone who is. I mean, we’ve seen it around here where lower income parents or grandparents buy homes in the poorer parts of town, which subsequently gentrify and are worth big bucks. Is it right and proper for the government to swoop in and take the majority of that money, leaving their heirs in basically the same position their parents were in? Or is it better to let them actually let them sell it and realize that extra wealth, which is at least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and could be life-changing for them? That could fund a college education outright, or be a downpayment on a house and a college subsidy. Or a good retirement fund start, or seed money for a small business. What entitles the government to any of it, when you look at it that way? > [@puzzlegal](#): > > And yes, I’m likely to be in trouble if he dies before me. But at least i know his passwords. If we both die in an unexpected accident, i don’t think my kids would be able to recover all that information. But because of the step up, they don’t need t Realistically, they just want to know what assets the estate has, and what debts the decedent had. Unless it’s a byzantine mess of trusts and shell companies or whatever, it’s usually not super hard, especially if you engage a probate attorney to help. What is important though, is making sure joint assets like houses aren’t in one person’s name. That gets a bit weird versus the situation where both are on the deed and the will states that the house goes to the other person. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/22 "2026-10-24T15:07:57Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Realistically, they just want to know what assets the estate has, and what debts the decedent had. But that’s enough information _because_ of the step up and the large exemption. (And having cleaned up my mother’s estate, and talked with friends who managed their parents’ estate, it an enormous pain in the ass. I do have one friend whose family lawyer handled everything, and that was easy for him. But my parents lawyers were crazy expensive for the part they did.) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/23 "2026-10-24T16:43:28Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > My husband keeps track of when each share was purchased in infinite detail. But you know what, when people die, information gets lost. He has a complicated spreadsheet. I’m sure that spreadsheet is only useful as a fun tool for him as he tinkers with family finances - I have a similar one. But if I died, that spreadsheet is useless. Luckily, every single broker dealer on the planet keeps track of that, and it’s as simple as hitting a button to print out a statement. Statements should have all purchase dates and cost basis amounts on them. At work I deal with financial trusts, and their statements can run upwards of 100 pages of individual lots. Every dividend that repurchases shares creates their own line item that carries forward for decades. It’s really not a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/24 "2026-10-24T16:57:53Z")
It’s not a big deal because you do it all the time. We deal with that on our taxes, and it’s a significant pita. I’m extremely grateful i didn’t need to deal with that for my mother’s estate. And as mentioned above, not every significant asset is tracked by a giant company that’s set up to keep the records. Many homes were purchased on one date, and improved on others, and maintained on yet others. The improvements, but not the maintenance, count towards the base price when the house is sold. How accurate and complete do you think most people’s records are, such that their heirs could calculate and document the appropriate numbers? Maybe there’s a piece of valuable art in the house, that was purchased 30 years ago when your parents were on vacation. Do you have records to split the the capital gains from the purchase price? Big, “it doesn’t matter” buckets for the heirs to drop everything into are a godsend. Just sorting out what needs to be sold, what needs to be thrown away, which child wants what, who can clean and prep the house… is a ton of work without complicating the financial aspect of the job. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/25 "2026-10-24T18:48:14Z")
How much revenue does the estate tax really generate? It seems like anyone with enough money to be affected can afford a lawyer who can get them out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/26 "2026-10-24T19:07:49Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > And as mentioned above, not every significant asset is tracked by a giant company that’s set up to keep the records. Many homes were purchased on one date, and improved on others, and maintained on yet others. Absolutely - I didn’t mean to imply something like a house was an easy thing to track. If your husband is tracking that stuff, he’s way ahead of the curve - that’s impressive. Anything in a brokerage account is super simple - complex assets are, well, complex. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/27 "2026-10-24T23:27:32Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I mean, we’ve seen it around here where lower income parents or grandparents buy homes in the poorer parts of town, which subsequently gentrify and are worth big bucks. > > Is it right and proper for the government to swoop in and take the majority of that money, leaving their heirs in basically the same position their parents were in? Or is it better to let them actually let them sell it and realize that extra wealth, which is at least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and could be life-changing for them? A: What’s the current estate tax exception? Is it above “hundreds of thousands of dollars”? B: No one is talking about taxing “lower income parents or grandparents buy homes in the poorer parts of town, which subsequently gentrify and are worth big bucks.” What’s being talked about is billionaires not being taxed like those lower income parents and grandparents EVER. This the same shell game that was played last time the ~~estate~~ death tax was in the news and people were convinced to support making changes to it that had no effect on them. Those people are not temporarily embarrassed ~~millionaires~~ billionaires, they’re exploited proletariat. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/28 "2026-10-24T23:54:30Z")
> [@Ancient\_Nerd](#): > > How much revenue does the estate tax really generate? It seems like anyone with enough money to be affected can afford a lawyer who can get them out of it. We are talking about lowering the threshold. I think we should lower the threshold, and at the same time eliminate the “How to Avoid Probate” trust dodge and lower the gift tax threshold. Or we could go in the Canadian direction with final income tax on all pending capital gains except for the principal residence. Now, politically it is very difficult. Maybe impossible. But if it is possible, you might have to exempt family farm assets to get it through congress. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/29 "2026-10-25T00:51:09Z")
I also think we should lower the threshold. And do something about the trust dodge. And the life insurance tax dodge. I think you should be able to leave enough money tax-free that simple small estates don’t have to deal with complex taxes. I think you should be able to leave enough money tax-free to raise a minor child or two to adulthood. But if people want to give money to their kids, they should give money to their kids. The current threshold is huge. It doesn’t need to be that huge. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2026, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/30 "2026-10-25T02:10:09Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Now, politically it is very difficult. Maybe impossible. But if it is possible, you might have to exempt family farm assets to get it through congress. One thought I had seems like it would work if the family farm thing was the real reason. What if they borrowed something from the way California asses property values for tax purposes? Set the price of farmland at the value it last sold for on the open market. If the farm has been in the family since it was homesteaded in the 19th century, that value could come from the Louisiana purchase. If it’s a corporate megafarm, the purchase would be more recent. It won’t happen, of course. The family farm thing is not the real reason. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2026, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100/31 "2026-10-25T04:25:42Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > My kids would never be able to figure out how much we paid for our house with upgrades over the years What, where you murdered all those travelers? That’s going to be a hard sell in any case. Anyhoo … yes, that’s a fair point. It’s definitely marginally more difficult to figure out that stuff for a parent’s home compared to your own. Maybe more than marginally depending how organized you are vs. your parent. Still, if parents have to sell the home a year or two before dying in order to move to assisted living, then they have to pay the full income tax on the appreciation. If they are able leave it to heirs, then that tax goes away. Granted, if one parent dies, the other does get the step up and is then free to sell and pocket the untaxed profits. However, brokerage accounts don’t have that accounting issue and they step up too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/estate-tax-what-threshold-is-too-high/1034100.md?page=1)