There is no federal inheritance tax. Only five states still charge the heir directly, but inherited IRAs carry their own 10-year clock and the step-up in basis skips retirement accounts entirely.
Roughly 0.2% of estates file a federal estate tax return, and the tax raises under 1% of federal revenue. How the $15M exemption, GRATs, and step-up in basis actually work.
More than $1 trillion now sits in strategies whose actual product is tax losses, not returns. How tax-aware long-short investing works, what it costs, and why Treasury called it potentially abusive.
