On December 30, 2009, the Wall Street Journal published Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man, by Laura Saunders. I blogged about a few excellent quotes from this article, here.
In a post on TaxProf, Mistake in Today's WSJ Front-Page Estate Tax Article (12/30/09), Prof. Paul L. Caron alerts us to a mistake in the article:
The otherwise excellent article contains this serious misstatement of the law:
[E]state planning in 2010 will be complicated by a new twist: a complex tax on capital gains, levied at death, that will affect a broader swath of taxpayers.
Of course, there is no Canadian-style capital gains tax at death. Instead, during the period of estate tax repeal (if the estate tax is not retroactively reinstated), the heirs will take a carryover basis in any inherited property, with any capital gains tax deferred until the property is sold by the heirs. (Hat Tip: Scott Meyer.)
The Wall Street Journal recognized the mistake in this article in Corrections & Amplifications (12/31/09):
Estate planning in 2010 will be complicated by a capital-gains tax that replaces the estate tax. A Wednesday front-page article about a temporary lapse in the estate tax incorrectly stated that the gains tax would be levied at death.
(Updated: 12/31/09)
