Harris supports tax on unrealized capital gains

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is all but confirmed to support a tax on unrealized gains after her economic adviser Bharat Ramamurti defended the policy during an interview Wednesday.

“I think this reaction to unrealized gains is kind of funny because I bet most people are already paying a tax on unrealized gains. It’s called property tax,” Ramamurti said.

Why Harris Will Support an Unrealized Capital Gains Tax

In a conversation with CNBC, Ramamurti emphasized that the 25 percent tax on unrealized gains, proposed under Joe Biden’s budget plan and reintroduced by Harris, would only apply to Americans with more than $100 million in assets That’s less than 0.5% of the US population: about 60,000 people.

“Yes, I think it’s pretty reasonable given the flawed system we have now for capital taxation,” said the adviser, who was a former deputy director of the National Economic Council under President Biden.

He added that the proposal has several stipulations and exemptions: business owners, for example, do not have to pay their taxes immediately, but can spread their payments over an extended period of time. The tax would apply on death.

CNBC hosts did not readily accept Ramamurti’s “property tax” analogy. Rebecca was quick to point out that property taxes go directly to taxpayers’ local community utilities. Also, properties do not change in value in the same way as other assets, and stocks are prone to much higher volatility.

“Probably Unconstitutional”

Pro-Bitcoin host Joe Kernen countered that the tax is “probably unconstitutional.”

“It was never in anybody’s intention to impose taxes, and it probably never will happen,” he said he said.

Bitcoiners were also not happy with the tax proposal.

“Capital flight and the subsequent collapse of US markets would be absolutely stunning.” he said popular macro analyst James Lavish on Wednesday. “And the end result would be far less tax revenue than we have now.”

Blockstream CEO Adam Back added that anyone who still supports Democrats “needs to make an intervention.” before their politics jump straight to “market destruction” and “communism”.

Ramamurti is also known to be extremely anti-crypto, having helped orchestrate that government-wide crackdown on the industry widely known as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

His position as an informal adviser to Harris has viewers in the crypto industry pessimistic that his administration will be more pro-industry than Biden’s.

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