Kamala Harris says she supports all the tax increases in Joe Biden's 2025 budget. Just for the record, those tax increases amount to about $5 trillion over the next decade.
There are 90 tax increases, according to the libertarian Cato Institute. Here are just a few.
Some of the other more than 90 proposals include a higher stock buyback tax, new global minimum taxes, higher taxes on carried interest, new limits on the deductibility of wages for highly paid employees, elimination of some like-kind exchanges, permanent loss limitations for pass-through businesses, higher taxes on oil, gas, and coal production, limits on retirement contributions and accelerated minimum distributions for some high‐income individuals, a new 30 percent excise tax on digital mining electricity costs, and a higher death tax.
"However, taken together, Harris proposes the largest tax increase in more than 40 years, raising tax rates to some of the highest in the world and resulting in lower wages for American workers and slower economic growth," writes Cato's Adam Michel.
The most controversial tax is Harris's idea to tax "unrealized capital gains." Currently, taxes aren't assessed until the property or stock is sold. Harris wants to tax real estate or stocks every year you hold them, hence "unrealized" capital gains.
The tax would be assessed only on those worth more than $100 million. No skin off our noses, right? The rich should pay their "fair share" and more because, well, they're rich.
If you believe that the floor for the "wealth tax" will always be $100 million, I have a bridge over the Chicago River I can sell you for a song.
As always, it's the principle that's at stake no matter whose ox is being gored. The idea of taxing anyone any amount for wealth they don't possess is morally wrong and should be opposed.
Unrealized capital gains don’t exist. You can no more tax them directly, as congressional Democrats tried to do, than reclassify them as “income,” as Biden wants to do.
A capital gain is the profit you get when you sell an investment for more than you paid for it. When the sale is complete and the money in your hand, a tax lawyer would call it a “realized” capital gain.
The tax on "unrealized capital gains" would be unconstitutional because it violates the apportionment clause (Section 2, 14th Amendment) It's a "direct tax" on income that doesn't exist.
"The Constitution forbids Congress from levying any direct tax unless it is apportioned among the states in proportion to the population. A direct tax is a tax on property (which includes money), or the income derived from property, which cannot be shifted onto someone else," explains Heritage.
The left has been twisting itself into knots for decades trying to make the square peg of unrealized capital gains fit in the round hole of the Constitution. It isn't working.
"I think that this reaction to unrealized gains is a little funny, given that I bet that the majority of people watching right now are already paying a tax on unrealized gains. It’s called a property tax," Bharat Ramamurti, an informal economic adviser on Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
Quick and Kernen quickly disagreed, as they noted that property taxes were a "use tax" because they're used for schools.
Ramamurti argued that when the value of a person's home goes up, they pay higher taxes even if they choose not to sell their home.
"Your value of your home never moves the way a stock moves, the way something else moves that you don't sell. It's also, property tax is a use tax. You're paying for the schools, you're paying for the emergency services. Those are things that make absolute sense," Quick shot back.
Ramamurti insisted Harris' plan and the revenue coming from the unrealized gains tax would provide more opportunity for Americans.
"More opportunity" courtesy of the government divvying up the goodies rather than the market. I can't wait to see how Harris & Co. plans to "invest" that $5 trillion in tax increases.
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