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LA Times Column: No, folks, Kamala Harris isn’t planning to tax your unrealized capital gains — but a wealth tax is still a good idea
Los Angeles Times ^ | 08/23/2024 | Michael Hiltzik

Posted on 08/23/2024 9:05:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

That fetid gust of hot air you may have detected wafting from Republican and conservative social media postings over the last day or two was a fabricated claim that Kamala Harris is plotting to tax everyone’s unrealized capital gains if she becomes president.

That would be a departure from current law, which taxes capital gains only when the underlying assets are sold, or “realized.”

That it’s a mythical allegation hasn’t stopped right-wingers and GOP functionaries from hand-wringing over the economic implications of any such change, and over the purportedly horrible impact on average Americans.

Here, for instance, is the far-right blowhard Mike Cernovich, in tweeting Tuesday on X : “If you own a house, subtract what you paid for it from the Zillow estimate. Be prepared to pay 25% of that in a check to the IRS. That’s your unrealized capital gains taxed owed under the Kamala Harris proposal.”

And Chicago venture investor Robert Nelson : “Taxing unrealized gains is truly the most insane, economy destroying, innovation killing, market crashing, retirement fund decimating, unconstitutional idea, which was probably planted by Russia or China to destroy the economy. Dems need to run away from this wildly stupid idea.”

All right, guys, take a deep breath. Harris hasn’t proposed taxing your unrealized capital gains, or mine. What she has said, as the Harris campaign told me, is that she “supports the revenue raisers in the FY25 Biden-Harris [administration] budget. Nothing beyond that.”

So what’s in that Biden-Harris administration budget for fiscal year 2025?

The budget plan does indeed call for taxation of unrealized capital gains held by the country’s uber-rich. That’s part of its proposal for a 25% minimum tax on the annual income of taxpayers with wealth of more than $100 million — a wealth tax.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: capitalgains; kamala; michaelhiltzik; tax; wealthtax
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So, what the author is saying is you only need to be worried if you're the UBER RICH ( e.g. Elon Musk or Warren Buffet ).

If you’re a member of that cohort, lucky you. But at that level of affluence you don’t have grounds to complain about paying a minimum 25% of your annual income.

The author argues that Anyway, there aren’t very many of you “centi-millionaires,” as the category is known—10,660 in the U.S., according to a 2023 estimate. That includes a handful of centi-billionaires such as Elon Musk ($249 billion, according to Forbes), Jeff Bezos ($198.5 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($185.3 billion). It’s doubtful that anyone in this category is poring over Zillow estimates to calculate the sale value of his or her house (or houses).

1 posted on 08/23/2024 9:05:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The income tax started as a tax on “rich people”.

Boiling the frog is what the Satanists er Democrats do.


2 posted on 08/23/2024 9:07:52 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: SeekAndFind

“She’s not doing it AND you should want her to!”


3 posted on 08/23/2024 9:10:26 AM PDT by aynrandfreak (Being a Democrat means never having to say you're sorry)
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To: SeekAndFind

Nope, NOPE and more nope.....it is NOT a good idea at all.
America has had enough of RAT taxes....more than enough.


4 posted on 08/23/2024 9:10:43 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created..." )
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To: SeekAndFind

So this is a tax that will destroy thousands of jobs.


5 posted on 08/23/2024 9:11:51 AM PDT by Romulus
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To: SeekAndFind

“We just want to get married like everyone else.”
“We just want abortion legal in the most rare and extreme conditions.”
They NEVER stop. The revolution must always be revolting.


6 posted on 08/23/2024 9:15:22 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: SeekAndFind

Its so reassuring knowing that unicorn farts, rainbows, an unqualified bimbo phony marxist, and MASSIVE TAX hikes are going to fix all of the USA’s problems (which, incidentally, were caused by the do-nothing lying bimbo and her boss). The definition of insanity is doing the same garbage over and over and thinking there will be a different result everytime.


7 posted on 08/23/2024 9:15:35 AM PDT by jpp113
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To: jpp113
Well, most Negroids, Sexally Degegrate and College students, and faculty at the IVYs don't care what policies are enacted. What is more concerning is the white "Book Club" Karens who may buy the whole Wine Mom cult of personality thing.

I still think Trump wins handily. He's doing better than 2016 and much better than 2020. I am calling the election over by 11 pm election night as Pennsylvania looks hopeless for Halfrican/Curry bimbo

8 posted on 08/23/2024 9:22:09 AM PDT by pburgh01
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To: Organic Panic

Nope, they originally just wanted to visit their partners in the hospital. Marriage was like three steps down the road.


9 posted on 08/23/2024 9:22:41 AM PDT by mykroar ("It's Not the Nature of the Evidence; It's the Seriousness of the Charge." - El Rushbo)
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To: SeekAndFind

Tariffs are the best way to raise revenue. Bar none.


10 posted on 08/23/2024 9:23:31 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Romulus
So this is a tax that will destroy thousands of jobs.

Not only that, it will destroy millions of people.
11 posted on 08/23/2024 9:24:13 AM PDT by Dan in Wichita
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To: SeekAndFind
It's not for you! It's just the Kamala's nose under the tent.

What happens when the big sell offs drive down stock prices in your savings?

What happens when the best and brightest decide a ten million dollar company is big enough?

What happens when those who do make more decide to move to a country friendlier to production, growth and freedom?

Why doesn't she look to countries that have tried this and damaged their economies?

12 posted on 08/23/2024 9:26:15 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (7/13/2024:The day the Democrats and their SA chose assassination as their primary political tool.)
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To: SeekAndFind

First the delusory NYT and now the insane LAT. A Friday comedy twoferone!


13 posted on 08/23/2024 9:27:54 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: SeekAndFind

I think the L.A. Times is charging way too much for their newspaper. They need to cut the cost of the paper in half.


14 posted on 08/23/2024 9:28:36 AM PDT by Parley Baer (e)
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To: SeekAndFind

A bald-faced lie.


15 posted on 08/23/2024 9:30:03 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: SeekAndFind

Lol…at the end of his article is this:
“The budget plan does indeed call for taxation of unrealized capital gains held by the country’s uber-rich”

So in principle it’s OK to tax unsold possessions as “ wealth”…as long as the State only comes after the “uber rich”

Ask anyone who survived or fled a communist regime, when did it stop with “the rich”


16 posted on 08/23/2024 9:31:49 AM PDT by silverleaf (“Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out” —David Horowitz)
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To: SeekAndFind

If you like your tax rate, you can keep it. (Just add about 20%)


17 posted on 08/23/2024 9:32:19 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: SeekAndFind

The Dims will quickly change that $100 mil threshold to $250k. Since when do Dims leave well enough alone? NEVER.


18 posted on 08/23/2024 9:38:37 AM PDT by jpp113
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To: SeekAndFind

The Federal Government already spends 22% of the entire GDP. Isn’t that enough?


19 posted on 08/23/2024 9:43:28 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign! )
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To: cgbg

ANYONE WHO BELIEVES ANYTHING THE L A SLIMES SAYS NEED A MENTAL EXAM.


20 posted on 08/23/2024 9:54:47 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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