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Raising capital gains tax rates - another straw on the camel's back?
invite response
2007 Jun 17, 5:03am 18,369 views 111 comments
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justme
2007 Jun 20, 3:28pm
Peter P.
> I agree that a universal health care system is necessary. However, I
I'm glad to hear that from you. I think you are a person with high ideals.
justme
2007 Jun 20, 3:30pm
Harm,
>Eventually, the prosperous and happy descendants rename Laissez-Faire >Village to ‘Social Democracy City’. The end ;-)
A nice fable of how history tends to develop if no rules are followed
Cute story, HARM. And how many uber-powerful people actually choose to accept the rule of the masses? Let's see. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution... I'm struggling to name a single time where power was diverted back to the people with such generosity. Normally the "prince" with his private army has a huge technological, informational and military advantage. They seem to go out with guns blazing.
Perhaps the Magna Carta serves your example, but that was more just the Lords getting their say with the King. Lots of bad stuff happened to the English masses even after that point.
@Brand,
Yeah, pretty unlikely, I know. But I wanted that 'feel good' happy ending :-) .
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There has been a lot of discussion on several reasons for the recent increase in the supply of housing. These reasons include over-building by developers, foreclosures, short-sales ahead of foreclosures, and boomers seeking to cash out and retire where it's cheaper to live. However, there's another reason which never gets mention, so I am curious what others think of it. This reason is that people with large capital gains appreciations in their houses may seek to unload them before the new Democrat Congress fulfills its pledge to jack up the capital gains tax rate from current 15% to something around 30%. For Californians, this means overall capital gains tax rates going from 24% to 39%.
A best case example would be a boomer couple who paid $50K for a house in Cupertino in the late 1960's wanting to cash out now for about $1million. Even with the $500K exclusion for couples, they still would see a tax bill go from $120K to $195K. A worst case example would be a speculator/investor who could exclude nothing. He or she would get socked with the entire 39% tax.
I know this was on my mind when I sold my Cambrian Park house in May 2006 and retired to Boise. Do you think that Congress upping the capital gains tax rate will be one more reason for people to try to sell prior to the new tax rate taking effect? And, hence, another straw on the camel's back of housing oversupply?
DennisN
#housing