Vice President Kamala Harris proposed increasing the long-term capital gains tax rate to 28% for wealthy Americans during an economic speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday, breaking with the policy laid out by President Joe Biden in his 2025 budget by suggesting a lower rate.
The current long-term capital gains tax rate – 20%, plus an additional 3.8% tax on higher earners – is paid when an investment is sold, or gains are realized. The Biden budget proposes raising that rate to the top rate he wants to levy on ordinary income – 39.6% – for households with taxable income over $1 million. Harris, the people familiar with the matter say, believes 39.6% is too high.
While Harris still supports taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations at higher rates – as Biden’s budget also calls for – she believes that a lower capital gains rate would incentivize investors to put more money into startups and small businesses. She has also proposed increasing the corporate tax rate to 28%, up from the current 21% rate set by Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
That’s a tough one - borrowing against stock value has essentially become a cheat code for the rich to live lavish lifestyles without ever actually spending their own money so it’d be nice to close that hack… I’m just concerned there may be some side effect to such a policy that’d punish regular-ish folks - that might hit retirees hard, for example, by (effectively) forcing people to actually sell stock to meet expenses - even during market downturns.
Cool. Have a minimum on the tax then. Elon et al shouldn’t be able to borrow millions or billions against their assets without paying a massive tax on it. Encourage them to sell the asset, realize the gains, pay the tax, and spend their money.
Zero reason for Tesla to have the valuation it does.