Why ‘buy, borrow, die’ tax strategy could become ‘buy, borrow, pray’

Inherited stock has the cost basis stepped up to current market value, but estate taxes still apply right? So the narrative that the gains never get taxed[1] isn’t quite correct.

[1] Under the “buy, borrow, die” strategy, a government may never get to tax the capital gains on an asset. Wealthy individuals, during their lifetimes, borrow against their stock holdings instead of selling them, and then bequeath them to children, for whom the capital gains basis is revised up to market value at the point of inheritance.