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posted by martyb on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:19AM   Printer-friendly

April 2, 2019

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, announced today that he would soon release a proposal to eliminate massive tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthy on their capital gains income. If successful, the proposal would ensure that income from wealth is taxed just like income from work.

His plan, which he has promised to flesh out in a white paper in the coming weeks, would tax the appreciation of assets owned by the very wealthy as income each year, an approach known as mark-to-market taxation. It would also subject that income to ordinary tax rates rather than special, lower income tax rates that apply to capital gains.

https://itep.org/sweeping-reform-would-tax-capital-gains-like-ordinary-income/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-democrat-proposes-annual-tax-on-unrealized-capital-gains-11554217383


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by legont on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:27AM (4 children)

    by legont (4179) on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:27AM (#825564)

    Even more interesting, what about real estate capital loss.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:45AM (1 child)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:45AM (#825571) Journal

    Yeah, about that.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by NPC-131072 on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:31AM

      by NPC-131072 (7144) on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:31AM (#825586) Journal

      More about $500,000 capital gains allowance for a married couple flipping their home.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:58PM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:58PM (#825791) Journal
    And inflation and non-market investments.

    But having said that, I don't mind an annual capital gains tax as long as it properly handles losses (and the other stuff), that is, treats it like negative income which the government will pay back taxes for (or at least carry over indefinitely). Else you'll get market dysfunction every time a large downturn happens. Sellers have less reason to sell, since they'll lose negative gains. Long term buyers are going to be more reluctant to enter a market because their short term gains would be taxed next year while they won't see the liquidity to pay for the long term investment for some time. Anything that kills interest by either side to trade is a strong indication it's a bad policy.

    I think the bigger problem will be non-market investments. How can you mark-to-market when there's no market? I think it'd be terrible to create a considerable incentive for the wealthy to abandon the markets (and the tax avoidance industry to increase its revenue).
    • (Score: 2) by legont on Monday April 08 2019, @12:29AM

      by legont (4179) on Monday April 08 2019, @12:29AM (#826004)

      We already have some unrealized capital gains taxed at supposedly mark to market. Namely real estate taxes are going up as values are assessed by the local government. Note that when prices are going down, no adjustments are made.

      In my case I am still a quarter million down, while my taxes are up. In 2009 they simply adjusted the value twice down, while increasing the taxes twice up to end up with approximately the same dollar number and increase it ever since.

      Meantime I lost $250K and my bank wants it back and refuses short sale deal because I can pay. The story of the rich right here. It'd be nice if I could deduct all of it from my income.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.