Finance & economics | Sweet gains, bro

America’s rich never sell their assets. How should they be taxed? 

It is tempting to tax them during their lives. It is wiser to do so after their deaths 

Private jets are seen on the tarmac at Friedman Memorial Airport.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Washington, DC

Editor’s note (June 20th 2024): The Supreme Court has ruled in Moore v United States, upholding the tax at issue (the “mandatory repatriation tax”). The court declined to weigh in on the constitutionality of a tax on unrealised gains.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Sweet gains, bro”

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