America’s ultra-rich today love to play tax-avoidance games. One of their favorites goes by the tag “buy-borrow-die,” a neat set of tricks that lets billionaire households avoid any taxes on the gains they make from their investments.

The simple rules of the buy-borrow-die game: buy an asset—with your millions or billions—and watch it grow. If you have a hankering to pocket some of that gain, don’t sell the asset. Any sale would trigger a capital gains tax. Just borrow against that asset instead, a simple move that lets you avoid capital gains levies so long as you live.

And what happens when you die? Nothing! Your asset’s untaxed gains vanish for income tax purposes under a tax code provision known as “stepped-up basis.”

Thanks to this buy-hold for decades-sell, the effective tax rate on the multi-billion dollar gains of America’s Bezoses, Gateses, and Buffetts, even when they do sell assets before they die, approaches zero.

This buy-borrow-die, progressive lawmakers like U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden from Oregon believe, amounts to a game plan for creating dynastic fortunes. Wyden has proposed an antidote, dubbed the “Billionaires Income Tax,” which would require billionaires to pay tax annually on the gains they make from tradable assets like the corporate shares that list on stock exchanges.

Gains from non-tradable assets would go untaxed, under Wyden’s proposal, but only until the assets get sold, at which point the tax rate would be increased to account for the tax-free compounding of annual gains. And those who inherit millions and billions from billionaires would no longer, under Wyden’s bill, be able to benefit from our current tax code’s magical stepped-up basis.

Closing the buy-borrow-die loophole would, all by itself, be reason enough for passing Wyden’s Billionaires Income Tax bill. But buy-borrow-die may only be the second leakiest loophole Wyden’s proposal would close. His Billionaires Income Tax proposal would also shut down a far less well-known loophole I like to call “Buy-Hold for Decades-Sell.”

How does this loophole work? Consider two rich taxpayers, Jack and Jill. Each invests $10 million in a stock they hope will grow at a 10% annual long-term rate, a good but not great return for a rich investor. Investors in Berkshire Hathaway, for example, have seen average annual returns of about 20%.

Our Jack goes on to hold his stock for 30 years and realizes exactly the 10% annual return he hoped to achieve.

Jill opts for a more aggressive investment strategy. After holding her stock for just over one-year, long enough to qualify her profits for the preferential tax rate available to long-term capital gains, Jill then sells at an 11% gain, pays tax on the gain, and invests the remaining proceeds in a stock she believes has more potential going forward. She successfully repeats this strategy each year for 30 years.

You might guess that Jill’s eventual nest egg at the........

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