Subject: Re: OT Push to index capital gains
Indeed. The gains should be indexed to inflation, and the after-inflation gains should be taxed as regular income.

That always made sense to me. It's not as if the world needs a big incentive to invest capital these days. There was a time when economic progress was limited by capital formation, but that era has been over for a long time. What firm these days goes public because they need money to expand that they couldn't have found another way more cheaply?

If there were a tax break specifically for capital gains, I could see a case for allowing an unusual gain to be spread over a couple/few years. Capital gains can be quite lumpy. I'm thinking of a small business owner with a modest income who sells the business and consequently has one year with a very high tax rate.

Jim