An Overview of Capital Gains Taxes FISCAL Erica York FACT Economist No
An Overview of Capital Gains Taxes FISCAL Erica York FACT Economist No. 649 Apr. 2019 Key Findings • Comparisons of capital gains tax rates and tax rates on labor income should factor in all the layers of taxes that apply to capital gains. • The tax treatment of capital income, such as capital gains, is often viewed as tax-advantaged. However, capital gains taxes place a double-tax on corporate income, and taxpayers have often paid income taxes on the money that they invest. • Capital gains taxes create a bias against saving, which encourages present consumption over saving and leads to a lower level of national income. • The tax code is currently biased against saving and investment; increasing the capital gains tax rate would add to the bias against saving and reduce national income. The Tax Foundation is the nation’s leading independent tax policy research organization. Since 1937, our research, analysis, and experts have informed smarter tax policy at the federal, state, local, and global levels. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. ©2019 Tax Foundation Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC 4.0 Editor, Rachel Shuster Designer, Dan Carvajal Tax Foundation 1325 G Street, NW, Suite 950 Washington, DC 20005 202.464.6200 taxfoundation.org TAX FOUNDATION | 2 Introduction The tax treatment of capital income, such as from capital gains, is often viewed as tax-advantaged. However, viewed in the context of the entire tax system, there is a tax bias against income like capital gains. This is because taxes on saving and investment, like the capital gains tax, represent an additional layer of tax on capital income after the corporate income tax and the individual income tax.
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