“ One special provision I would consider adopting is a ten-year tax deferral period … meaning the estate or heirs have ten years to pay the $600,000 tax bill.”
Disagree 100%. Not only doesn’t the government deserve a cut of this action, they would only waste it on crap. It’s well past the time where we force them to retreat back to only doing their Constitutionally identified duties. Taking a cut of your estate when you die isn’t part of that.
But if we are going to be subject to income and capital gains taxes, then it makes sense to impose them as uniformly and fairly as possible.
The taxpayer who sells a major real estate asset and then dies a week later and leaves the proceeds of the sale to his heirs pays a sizable capital gains tax. The taxpayer who dies before the sale is consummated does not. This makes no sense at all.