Jon Kyl: “last Friday, the Senate concluded debate on the Death Tax Elimination Act, H.R. 8, and passed the bill by a bipartisan…”

“last Friday, the Senate concluded debate on the Death Tax Elimination Act, H.R. 8, and passed the bill by a bipartisan vote of 59 to 39. I am very grateful to Senators on both sides of the aisle who supported this important legislation. The broad, bipartisan support the death-tax repeal bill received suggests that we have finally found a formula for taxing inherited assets in a fair and common sense way. Unrealized gains will be taxed, but they will be taxed when they are earned--not at death. Death itself will no longer trigger a tax. This change--effectively substituting a capital-gains tax, which would be due upon the sale of inherited assets, for an estate tax at death--is itself a compromise. When I first introduced a death-tax repeal bill in 1995, I did not propose any change in the stepped-up basis--a change that is at the heart of this bill. My original legislation would have repealed the death tax and allowed heirs to continue to step up the tax basis in the inherited property to the fair market value at the date of death.”