Capital Gains Taxes - Should they be abolished?

[David Floyd]

Do you guys think capital gains taxes should be abolished?

Personally, I definitely think so, given the fact that it is simply a way of a)taxing a person twice, b)punishing a person for doing well in the market, and, to a lesser degree, c)discouraging investment.

What do y'all think?

[Kropotkin]

A) Don't have to be the same person... b) doing well in all forms means taxes, no (real) difference here c) Depends if you want spendings or savings.... If you got millions on the bank, what's the option really?

[chequita guevara]

No.

[DinoDoc]

Taxes in general should be reduced

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
No.

That settles that then. How can anyone possibly argue against such a well thought out case?

[KrazyHorse]

I agree wholly and without reservation with chegitz.

[Lefty Scaevola]

They should be abolished only to the extent income tax should be ablolish. Ehile the income tax still plauges us, the best thing to do with capital gains is to anually index the basis, and tax what gain still occurs along with the ordinary income.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes

[Richard Bruns]

Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than income. This means that the government takes money you work for at a higher rate than money you don't work for. :hm: It also creates lots of perverse market incentives and accounting loopholes, and makes it a lot more complicated to pay taxes. Capital gains should simply be counted as income.

[chequita guevara]

Re: Taxes in general should be reduced

Originally posted by DinoDoc
That settles that then. How can anyone possibly argue against such a well thought out case?

I'm glad you're finally begining to see things my way. This will make life much easier.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Why? It's already been taxed before being placed in investment.

[Grrr]

We NZer's don't have em, so this is an ambiguous arguement!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Why? It's already been taxed before being placed in investment.

You don't get taxed on the money you invest, only the money you gain as the investment grows. Hence, capital gains tax. By and large, you get taxed at a lower rate than income taxes (unless your income is in a low bracket and/or you cash out your investment in less than a year).

Back when I had options (back in the good old days of the .com bubble) I looked long and hard about how to deal with these suckers. If you sell your stock under a year after inve3sting in it, any capital gains are taxed at 28% (IIRC). If you sit on them for a year, they are taxed at 20%.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Capital Gains Taxes - Should they be abolished?

Originally posted by David Floyd
Do you guys think capital gains taxes should be abolished?

Personally, I definitely think so, given the fact that it is simply a way of a)taxing a person twice, b)punishing a person for doing well in the market, and, to a lesser degree, c)discouraging investment.

What do y'all think?

No.

a. How does said person is taxed twice?
b. That seems to be irrelevant
c. On the other hand, it discourages speculation.

[Rogan Josh]

Why should Capital Gains Tax be abolished before income tax? After all, as Richard said, it is a tax on money you didn't work for. Seems fair enough to me.

Even worse, CGT is paid mainly by rich people - so I would be in favour of raising it and bleeding some of these rich bastards dry.

[axi]

Capital gains should simply be counted as income.

You mean it isn't?

Wait a sec....

(looks at his income tax declaration)

Indeed it isn't!

But if we want to count it as income, it has to be declared, which means that accumulation overtime has to be sorted out (the so-called "pothen esches" or "where did you get that?")

Tax them for all they've got!