When American progressives go to bed at night, do they dream of new ways to raise taxes? The latest tax incarnation from America's left was floated in a February 8 New York Times op-ed entitled "The Zuckerberg Tax." Under this scheme, new taxes would be imposed on the mark-to-market values of publicly traded companies. The new tax would apply only to America's "ultra-wealthy," defined in the article as the top 0.1% --those "individuals and married couples who earn, say, more than $2.2 million in income, or own $5.7 million or more in publicly traded securities." In particular, the long-term capital gains rate (currently 15%, but slated to rise to 20% next year) would be applied to all increases in the market value of equity securities held. As a result, if the market value of the Microsoft stock held by Bill Gates rose by $1 billion during a calendar year, he would pay at least an additional $150 million in taxes, even though no real gain had been recognized. In the....
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