MSCI Signs Letter To Preserve Key Component Of Federal Estate Tax
In late May, with the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition (FBETC), MSCI sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. Senate Finance and the U.S. House Ways and Means committees asking that they continue using a stepped-up basis for the federal estate tax.
As the letter said, maintaining “stepping up basis when an individual who is a member of a family-owned business dies is critical to that business surviving the loss of a loved one and a business partner.” Alternatively, repealing this policy “by imposing capital gains taxes when assets transfer ownership at death would force many family-owned businesses to liquidate assets or lay off employees to cover the tax burden.”
Indeed, a recent EY report forecasted that 80,000 jobs would be lost in each of the first ten years and U.S. gross domestic product would decrease by $100 billion over ten years if stepped-up basis were repealed by imposing a tax on unrealized gains at death. Additionally, for every $100 of revenue raised by repeal via taxing capital gains at death, $32 would come out of the paychecks of workers.
Read the letter here.