FY2026-2035 · CBO February 2026 baseline

Eliminate Step-Up Basis

Tax capital gains at death with $1M exemption. Raises ~$500B over 10 years.

Ten-year deficit effect, conventional-$523.5Breduces the deficit
With macroeconomic feedback and debt service-$586.4BFRB/US-Lite (Federal Reserve calibrated)
Checked against

Published score -$500.0B; this estimate is 4.7% away (calibrated reference). Calibrated to reproduce -$500B (Biden proposal) — agreement is by construction, not an independent test.

Typical error for this kind of policy: -$560.6B to -$486.3B, from 2 out-of-sample tax expenditure cases.

Out-of-sample accuracy, tax expenditure: 2 pre-registered rows miss their published scores by 7.1% on average (median 7.1%), worst 12.8% — 1 of the 2 falls inside the average. On this figure that is -$560.6B to -$486.3B typical, -$590.5B to -$456.5B at the worst row. Read off the out-of-sample tier only — not the calibrated tiers, whose agreement is by construction. It is the observed spread of this model against published scores for this class of policy, not a confidence interval.

Year by year

billions, conventional
Fiscal yearRevenueDeficit, conventionalMacro feedbackDebt serviceDeficit, dynamic
2026+$43.6B-$43.6B-$7.7B-$1.7B-$37.7B
2027+$45.3B-$45.3B-$9.0B-$3.6B-$39.9B
2028+$47.2B-$47.2B-$8.0B-$5.4B-$44.6B
2029+$49.0B-$49.0B-$6.3B-$7.4B-$50.1B
2030+$51.0B-$51.0B-$4.8B-$9.4B-$55.7B
2031+$53.0B-$53.0B-$3.5B-$11.6B-$61.2B
2032+$55.2B-$55.2B-$2.5B-$13.8B-$66.5B
2033+$57.4B-$57.4B-$1.7B-$16.1B-$71.7B
2034+$59.7B-$59.7B-$1.2B-$18.5B-$76.9B
2035+$62.1B-$62.1B-$0.8B-$20.9B-$82.2B

Download CSV

Who pays

first year, by income group
Total tax change, 2026+$43.6Bpeople pay more
Returns paying more14.4%
Returns paying less0.0%
Income groupReturnsAverage changeShare of incomeShare of totalPaying morePaying lessTax rate beforeTax rate after
Lowest Quintile62.8M+$20.02%0.4%1.8%0.0%2.6%2.6%
Second Quintile35.4M+$40.01%0.3%1.5%0.0%5.8%5.8%
Middle Quintile26.0M+$80.01%0.5%2.5%0.0%8.3%8.3%
Fourth Quintile16.8M+$510.04%1.9%9.8%0.0%11.2%11.2%
Top Quintile20.3M+$2,0850.68%96.9%95.0%0.0%20.3%20.8%

Approximate bracket method: this policy cannot run through the return-level microsimulation, so read the shape as directional rather than as a validated table. Groups are ranked by adjusted gross income per return. Average change is in dollars per return; positive means the group pays more tax.

Economic effects

difference from the CBO baseline
GDP, summed over the window-0.65percent-years
Jobs at the largest effect-82K
Deficit effect of the GDP change+$45.5Bless tax collected
Deficit effect of interest on the debt-$108.4Bless debt, less interest
Fiscal yearGDP levelJobsUnemployment10-year rateGDP change, deficitInterest, deficit
2026-0.110%-70K+0.05 pt-0.00 pt+$7.7B-$1.7B
2027-0.129%-82K+0.06 pt-0.01 pt+$9.0B-$3.6B
2028-0.114%-73K+0.06 pt-0.01 pt+$8.0B-$5.4B
2029-0.091%-58K+0.05 pt-0.02 pt+$6.3B-$7.4B
2030-0.068%-44K+0.03 pt-0.03 pt+$4.8B-$9.4B
2031-0.049%-32K+0.02 pt-0.03 pt+$3.5B-$11.6B
2032-0.035%-23K+0.02 pt-0.04 pt+$2.5B-$13.8B
2033-0.025%-16K+0.01 pt-0.04 pt+$1.7B-$16.1B
2034-0.017%-11K+0.01 pt-0.05 pt+$1.2B-$18.5B
2035-0.012%-8K+0.01 pt-0.06 pt+$0.8B-$20.9B

FRB/US-Lite (Federal Reserve calibrated). Demand effects fade over five to seven years as monetary policy responds; there is no supply-side channel. The dynamic score is the conventional score, plus the deficit effects of the GDP change and of interest on the debt: -$523.5B + $45.5B - $108.4B = -$586.4B.

Other scoring models

exploratory
ModelTen-year deficit effectMethod
CBO-Style-$523.5BStatic + ETI behavioral response + optional FRB/US dynamic feedback
TPC-Microsim PilotCannot score thisEliminate Step-Up Basis (TaxExpenditurePolicy) does not map onto current microsim pilot reforms (income-tax rates, CTC, EITC, SALT, std deduction, AMT exemption).

No pilot model returned distributional output; the comparison is aggregate-only.

CBO-Style is the model behind the headline above. The TPC-style microsimulation is a pilot: where the two disagree, the gap tells you how much the answer depends on method. It is not an official range.

Limitations

Cite asWilse-Samson, Laurence. “Eliminate Step-Up Basis.” Fiscal Policy Calculator, CBO February 2026 baseline, FY2026-2035. https://fiscal.lwilsesamson.com/explore/step-up-basis-eliminate