Among the various new taxes proposed by Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign are increased levies on capital gains and taxation of unrealized capital gains on wealthy Americans. Given recent history, this is particularly sneaky. The Biden-Harris team sparked rapid inflation, so now the Harris-Waltz duo wants to tax the phantom inflationary gain even before citizens holding assets as a shield against inflation have disposed of them. In other words, Harris plans to tax gains that don’t yet exist, which wouldn’t be possible without the inflation exacerbated under the Biden-Harris administration.
(Over)Taxing the Rich?
The Harris team rationalizes an assault on rich people’s capital to reduce the federal deficit, increase federal revenue, and “rebalance the tax code” so that the wealthy will “pay their share.” Targeting the rich is a standard slippery slope to justify government intrusions that will then be extended to more citizens and their assets.
Capital gains are generally a product of “real” growth due to increased demand or limited supply combined with inflation. As inflation escalates, the portion of gain on the disposition of capital assets attributable to sketchy Federal Reserve policy and not actual wealth also rises. The government artificially boosts asset values and then rakes off a percentage (28% under Harris’ latest proposals) of that artificial “gain.”
This is a moral hazard that has reared its ugly head before. Battling vicious inflation through the 1970s, the United Kingdom’s high capital tax rates stifled real economic growth. In a 1979 speech following the conservatives’ General Election victory, then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe condemned taxing phantom capital gains attributable not to real income growth but government-seeded inflation: “The objection to CGT [Capital Gains Tax] in its present form is that most of the yield comes from paper gains arising from inflation. The tax is, therefore, a capricious and sometimes savage levy on the capital itself.” […]
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