Free Republic

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering eliminating the capital gains tax, which can boost investment, reward entrepreneurship, and strengthen the economy. By removing the tax on profits from stocks, property, and other assets, the president's move aims to unleash private capital that has been held back due to taxation. On Sunday, while speaking to reporters, President Trump said he is considering eliminating the capital gains tax on home sales. "I think it can be a great incentive for a lot of people that really need money," Trump said. The reporter then suggested that eliminating the capital gains tax on home...

Donald Trump has told lawmakers he wants to end the special tax treatment of private equity and hedge fund profits known as “carried interest”, setting up a potential clash with America’s wealthiest financiers. The push by Trump — in a White House meeting on Thursday with Republican leaders from Capitol Hill — comes as the president intensifies talks over a broader tax cut bill he wants passed this year that is core to his domestic economic agenda. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Trump had “laid out” his “tax priorities” to the lawmakers, including measures to...

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Harris-Walz Campaign Senior National Spokesman Ian Sams argued that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed increasing capital gains taxes so there’s “an incentive so that people can continue to invest in the entrepreneurship that makes this country great.” And responded to charges that hiking the rate will discourage investment by stating that “I thought maybe people would say, well, President Biden proposed going all the way up to 40% and she’s proposing going to 28%.”

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban warned Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that Vice President Kamala Harris’ capital gains tax plan would “kill the stock market.” Cuban said, “What I told them is if you tax unrealized gains, you’re going to kill the stock market, and it’s going to be the ultimate employment plan for private equity because companies are not going to go public because you can get whipsawed.” He added, “Based off the unrealized gains, I would have had to borrow money and I effectively would have been in hawk just to pay my tax bill instead of trying to...

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...

Capital gains changes have Canadians rushing to get ‘affairs in order’ Canadians are scrambling to get their “affairs in order” as controversial changes to how capital gains are taxed are set to go into effect on Tuesday, accountants say. The changes, which have received pushback from business groups and doctors, will increase the inclusion rate for taxable capital gains from 50 to 67 per cent for individuals realizing more than $250,000 in capital gains annually. Even though the proposal was first introduced in Budget 2024 in April, more details on the changes only became clear on June 10 when the...

The Supreme Court issued a much-awaited ruling in a tax case, holding that the mandatory repatriation tax passed as part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts did not exceed Congress’ constitutional authority. The court’s holding was narrow, and significant in large part for issues it did not address, leaving open questions related to the constitutionality of alternative taxing schemes—such as a so-called wealth tax—for another day. The 7-2 opinion in Moore v. United States, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, noted that Article I of the Constitution affords Congress broad powers to lay and collect taxes, both direct and indirect taxes,...

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a part of President Trump's 2017 'Tax Cuts and Jobs Act' that levied a tax on capital appreciation is constitutional. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented. The court ruled 7-2 that the mandatory repatriation tax, or MRT, is constitutional under the taxation regimes defined in Article I and the 16th Amendment. In short, the MRT imposed a one-time requirement for US citizens and companies to repatriate money held overseas.In 2005, Charles and Kathleen Moore invested $40,000 in an Indian business named KisanKraft, which marketed power tools...

One tax table is focused on taxing Americans on their ordinary income, the income you earn from your job or your business. The other tax table is focused on taxing your long-term capital gains, meaning assets that have grown in appreciation such as stocks or your business value held more than 365 days. * * * According to a report issued by the Treasury Department, led by Secretary Janet Yellen, Biden’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget would increase the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends to an astonishing 44.6%. Today, that top marginal long-term capital gains...

If Joe Biden is successful in passing his massive capital gains tax rate hike, Americans in 11 states will next year be paying over 50 percent of some of the profits when they sell off their assets to the government. The president's 2025 budget proposal includes increasing the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains dividends to 44.6 percent mark, which is the highest ever since the tax was implemented a century ago. The current rate sits below 25 percent - so the increase represents a significant hike.

The Biden administration’s analysis of its revenue proposals for fiscal year 2025 argues targeted tax hikes that disproportionately affect white people would ease racial wealth inequality. Increasing taxes on capital gains and income-based wealth would reduce racial wealth inequality for black and Hispanic families, the Treasury Department outlined in the analysis published in mid-March. The Treasury points out that white families disproportionately hold assets subject to capital gains tax or are in a higher tax bracket, meaning a hike in those taxes would benefit black and Hispanic families. (RELATED: US Economic Growth Slows Down Massively, Well Below Expectations) The Biden...

The proposal, released last month, notes that the administration wants to increase the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains dividends up to 44.6 percent, which would make the tax rate exceed 50 percent in states like California, New Jersey, New York and others. Two separate proposals would need to pass in the final 2025 budget for the 44.6 percent figure to come to fruition. 'Biden has proposed adding a second Death Tax (separate from and in addition to the existing Death Tax) by taking away stepped-up basis when parents die. This would result in a mandatory capital gains tax...

Tuesday morning the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments pursuant to a case in which Charles and Kathleen Moore argue that an obscure provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is unconstitutional. This is not an “inside baseball” case that only compulsive Court watchers will care about. If the justices rule against the Moores, it will supercharge the government’s confiscatory powers by enabling its inclination to tax unrealized income. This will affect everyone reading this column, not just investors with large stock portfolios. It would, in theory, permit the IRS to tax an increase in the value...

@unusual_whales Biden’s new budget includes a new minimum tax on wealthy individuals’ unrealized capital gains, a quadrupled tax on stock buybacks and higher Medicare taxes on people making over $400,000. Shibetoshi Nakamoto Replying to @unusual_whales taxing unrealized gains -> everyone sells everything -> economy collapses @ElonMusk True @PeterSchiff It's also unconstitutional, as unrealized gains do not meet the constitutional definition of income. Such a tax would be a direct tax on property and would therefore need to be apportioned by state according to its population. That won't happen.

Our current secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, is busy trying to find a way to tax wealth without calling it taxing wealth. She has eyes on taxing unrealized capital gains. What this means simply is taxing people for money they have not earned or received. That's it in a nutshell. That definition should leave even those who have never had a course in accounting or finance shaken. Not only is Janet Yellen considering this, but the Democrat party is on board as well. Democrats claim that it is needed in order to pay for their agenda. You know —...

Maybe I don’t understand how the supposed plan is supposed to work. There is no tax credit for unrealized capital losses, right? So you won’t want to hold volatile asset classes any more, right? Imagine the value going up, you pay some tax, and then the value falls and you move into loss territory. You still paid the tax! You get nothing back. By exactly how much do the prices of these assets have to fall, ex ante, so that holding them is a good idea in the first place? Or maybe the wealthy investors subject to this tax are...

Because Democrats are trying to incorporate the president’s American Families Plan into their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, Americans should be happy that it’s having such a devil of a time getting through Congress. Biden’s “plan” is to raise taxes, and not just by upping tax rates, but also by changing how and when taxes are collected. The proposed changes to the capital gains tax is supposed to target only the super wealthy, but that’s also how the income tax was sold, and we know how that went. On April 28 the White House released a fact sheet that outlines the...

Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden wants to tax billionaires' unrealized wealth gains annually. Biden said he supports the proposal as a potential method to fund Democrats' social-spending bill. "I come from the corporate state of America," Biden said. "I just think it's about just paying your fair share, for Lord's sake." House Democrats have proposed a whole host of options to pay for their $3.5 trillion social-spending bill which includes measures like universal pre-K, tuition-free community college, and paid leave for workers. One of those options, proposed by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, is a change to the way the...

A recent study by Iowa State University showed that the administration’s American Families Plan if passed into law, would have a significant negative effect on Iowa’s family farms. In order to pay for new spending in the American Families Plan, the Biden administration has proposed, amongst other tax hikes, taxing accrued capital gains at death. AMAC Action and a number of small business organizations have been pushing back strongly on the proposal. This new Iowa State University study confirms that this issue should be front and center for small businesses and family farms. Kristine Tidgren, director of Iowa State’s Center...

VERSAILLES, Ky.—Five brick apartment buildings in this horse-country town make up Paul Settle’s retirement nest egg. He purchased the complex 27 years ago and has spent almost every day since tidying the grounds, repairing garbage disposals and collecting rent checks. Mr. Settle, 64 years old, pays himself about $75,000 a year. The idea was always to one day sell and retire off the proceeds. But now his plans are on hold. The Biden administration’s tax proposal would increase the capital-gains taxes Mr. Settle would pay on the sale of the apartments, which he expects to fetch over $2 million. Mr....