The justification for this is that an additional tax cut could be offered to American citizens by adding inflation adjustment to capital gains calculations.
For example, if you make an investment of $1000 in 2000 and sell that investment for $2000 in 2017, the gain of $1000 will be taxed at the top rate of 23.8%. However, if the purchase price was adjusted to reflect inflation, the adjusted purchase price would be $1421 in 2017 dollars. The ‘true gain’ would be $579. Unadjusted, the tax bill would be $238. Adjusted for inflation, the tax bill would be $138.
This adjustment could be made by the Treasury department without requiring a bill in Congress and without needing any sort of scoring. Although this is not TTFI, the benefits of such an action should be granted to overseas Americans as well as those living stateside. This is our opportunity to show Congress that the right way to reform tax codes is to make sure that corporations as well as stateside and overseas American individuals should all benefit equally from tax reform.
Please support linking capital gains taxation to inflation by signing this petition.
This petition will run from February 13 through March 13. |
Why should American capitalists be taxed for bringing their capital home? Don’t we want them to? Does that make any sense?