Posted on 08/31/2024 7:20:23 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Some ideas are like horror movie villains. They’re dangerous, and no matter how many times they’re defeated, they never seem to die.
The misguided idea of taxing unrealized capital gains is back on the scene. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., floated a proposal to tax unrealized capital gains in 2021.
It was widely debated in 2022, when Congress was considering a multitrillion-dollar tax and spending package.
Opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to taxing income before it’s earned helped defeat the idea then.
But the idea was far from dead. President Joe Biden included a version of the tax in his latest budget.
Vice President Kamala Harris also has endorsed the idea.
The first step in killing a bad idea is to recognize it for the scourge it is.
A realized capital gain—which we currently tax—is the difference between the price you sold an asset for and the price you paid for it. An unrealized gain, on the other hand, is an estimate of what that difference would be if you had sold an asset that you still hold.
The difference between taxing realized capital gains and unrealized gains is the difference between the government taxing people on income they’ve actually received versus the government taxing them on income they might receive later.
It would give the government the first claim on income, taking a big slice before the supposed owner of the asset ever sees a penny.
In effect, it would turn property owners into property renters, with Uncle Sam as their landlord.
Consider how an unrealized capital gains tax would work if it was applied to housing. You would be taxed on the increase in the value of your house regardless of whether you sold it and received any income out of it.
If you bought a house for $300,000, and the value rose to $500,000 a couple years later, you could be stuck paying tax on the $200,000 of gain even as you’re struggling to make mortgage payments. At a 25% tax rate, it would cost you $50,000 in federal taxes.
It would be like having a second mortgage, but in some ways worse.
At least mortgage payments end after 30 years. But you would never finish paying off your unrealized capital gains tax payments, as long as you owned the asset and its value was increasing—even if that increase was only from inflation.
And unlike mortgages, which give homeowners clearly defined payment terms, unrealized capital gains tax payments would be unpredictable, rising or falling depending on the housing market, inflation, and subjective assessments of a house’s value.
Unrealized capital gains taxes on business assets wouldn’t be much better. The value of company stocks fluctuate wildly, year to year and even day to day. If a company’s stock price skyrocketed at the end of one year and then plummeted at the start of the next, its shareholders could face devastating capital gains taxes that they may have no way of paying—even if they were to sell their shares.
Unrealized capital gains are often—as the name suggests—not real. But the taxes on the phantom gains would be very real.
Under an unrealized capital gains tax, the federal government would exert its primacy over Americans’ investments, taking the first dividends on profitable endeavors. But although the government would reap the first rewards, individual investors and business owners would bear the risk of losses.
Taxing the unrealized gains from ownership in a small, closely held business would present many of the same challenges as taxing unrealized gains on corporate stock or on housing. And it would present unique challenges.
Stock prices may be used to estimate public companies’ prices, but an unrealized capital gains tax on small business assets would require administratively burdensome business valuations. Small business owners—with limited access to capital markets—would be especially ill-prepared to deal with sudden surges in taxes whenever the company’s estimated value rose. As soon as small businesses achieved some success, the government would slam them with new taxes and stop their momentum.
Those in Washington who propose taxing unrealized capital gains generally include broad exemptions for certain asset classes and based on income or asset thresholds. These exceptions would give investors a path to escape from the tax, which is better than the alternative. The tax would have fewer direct victims as a result.
But the tax-induced capital flows still would wreak economic havoc—and without managing to raise much government revenue. So, the new tax would do little to satiate lawmakers’ appetite for more tax dollars.
And once a horror movie villain—or a bad idea—gets a foot in the door, it quickly can swing the door open wide and claim more victims. When the income tax was first implemented in 1913, it applied to less than 1% of the population, and most of those who paid it paid only a 1% rate. That small initial income tax spawned something far worse and more widespread over time.
Allowing the government to tax income that doesn’t exist sets an even more dangerous precedent.
Americans should slam the door on the idea of taxing unrealized capital gains, and lawmakers should kill the idea once and for all.
That’s basically paying taxes on money you _could_ have but don’t have. Yes?
Every year???
Surely the courts would knock it down for the theft it would be?
“Dusky Rascals”
I must admit: I LOLed!
What if you have unrealized “Losses”?
Exactly. Your home, gold, silver, antique car restorations, anything that gains in value after you buy it. I wonder if these idiots in congress considered how it would affect them and their windfall profits in the stock market? Assuming of course, that they actually pay taxes in the first place.
No wonder the dipstick Leftists want to do this. The key description that makes them salivate at the thought:
"In effect, it would turn property owners into property renters, with Uncle Sam as their landlord."
It is an astonishingly warped and evil concept, as are nearly all Marxist ones from which this is derived.
What is that saying? "You want a civil war? This is how you get a civil war."
OTOH, I believe we have surpassed the fabled tipping point, where the people voting for people to take money from someone and give it to them has surpassed those who earn the money.
This is all by design. We are in great danger.
the courts would knock it down for the theft it would be?
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No, the property taxes you pay now is taxing unrealized gains. The comps they use to tax you are from recent sales. You are taxed on those values even tho you never sold.
Capital “Gains” need to be indexed to an individual’s actual, personal inflation rate calculated over that individual’s annual experienced inflation.
No more inflation tax.
We already pay real estate taxes on inflated home valuations. We were just assessed at a huge increase in value; I expect our tax bill next year will be at least 30% more than this year. And we have made no improvements to the home in years. If we were to have to pay income taxes on the “gain” due to the increased assessment, it would be a huge setback in our (generally stable and well planned) financial security.
Time to sell and go sleep in your car/RV…..
Sadly, in the America we have now, we cannot depend on the law or legality to save us.
What we have seen is that the Left has done two things: They have largely captured the courts, and when the courts they have not captured rule against them, they dismissively ignore them...with no penalty.
We are in great danger. Those of us who still pay taxes are at risk of becoming actual slaves to those who vote to take our money from us.
So what will be the little loophole that exempts politicians?
Chief Traitor Roberts is to blame for the demise of the Leagle System.
[It was never about Justice].
…Beagle….
So what will be the little loophole that exempts politicians?
The worst impacted would be breakthrough drug company shareholders.
They could easily be muscled out of the fruits of their hard work.
Commissioner [of the IRS)],
We’re prepared to pay $1 billion for Great Discovery Ltd. Send the shareholders a bill for $250 million.
Big Pill Inc.
I have long since come to believe he is being blackmailed. Probably a homosexual or child molester.
It is the only thing that really makes sense, but the man is a human stain.
Agreed.
My proposal for a constitutional amendment:
Levies on any residential property of less than 2799 square feet of finished living space shall be no higher than the 2019 dollar amounts on the property, or for a newer or since resold property no higher than what it would have been levied at for 2019 if it lacked owner specific tax breaks, increased by 3% per calendar year since 2019 and by any percentage increase to its finished living space.
Drop a constitutional amendment proposal bill in two congressional hoppers and fight to limit the ability of Democrats to buy votes at the expense of the middle class. It might make Congress deep red come January.
Give Trump more New England, New York and New Jersey congressional representatives.
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