pro publica

Under America's current loophole-ridden tax law, rich people — even billionaires — can pass unlimited investment gains to their descendants without paying a dollar in income tax. These rich don't even have to do any fancy planning. All they have to do is die, a step everyone, of course, takes eventually.

This particularly lush loophole comes from a tax law provision known as the "stepped-up basis rule," and it works like this: Say Jeff Bezos died and left his Amazon shares, currently worth over $100 billion, to his kids. The Bezos kids would be treated under our income tax law as if they bought the shares for their value on the date of dad's death. They could sell the shares at that value and pay no income tax.