And my take is that many of those people have not paid taxes on those gains. So Peter Theil valued his private company at $2000 and put the shares in an IRA. 20 years later the stock is worth $5billion and sheltered from taxes. He would never pay tax on any of that gain, except for under an estate tax.

The estate tax limit is $4m in Illinois. $12m for Feds.

But if you gain wealth by increases in the value of investments or real estate that you hold that isn’t taxes during your lifetime if it’s not sold. And upon death the cost basis is increased to the value at death, so your heirs will inherited it and can sell it tax free. Inheritance tax would capture those gains if the value of the estate was over $12m USD for an individual or $24m for a couple.