[Paul T]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

i mean if we want to talk about tax policy, another no brainer that anyone and everyone should support is getting rid of capital gains tax, and taxing it as normal income, at normal income tax rates.

because right now, its ~15% cheaper to do nothing, and be rich, and gut American companies, than it is to get off your ass and do some actual work. because income from working, is taxed at basically double the rate that doing nothing is taxed at.

it is obvious to casual observer that generations of rewarding incomes for doing nothing, while punishing laborers with higher taxes for you know ... doing things ... probably leads to a skewed capital/labor market.

if we want to get go even farther ... if labor is more important than capital, which it is, why would we tax them equally? why wouldnt we seek to reduce the tax burden on those actually doing things, and punish those who dont do things? ie, why isnt capital gains tax actually higher than income tax? it should be.

idk if I agree with that….those making a capital investment in business or whatever it may be are putting money at risk, and (hopefully) adding jobs and adding to GDP along the way. The traditional argument is that LTCG tax is lower to encourage this investment. Now, you may have a point with regard to carried interest tax rates, which primarily benefit pure financial risk takers, and (generally) only kick in when the original investment $$ is recouped, along with some nominal return (hence, no more risk). I can see the argument why that should be taxed as ordinary income.