The minimum tax payments would count as a “prepayment,” credited against future capital-gains taxes, the Treasury Department said. That way, when the asset was finally sold off, it would not be taxed twice, it noted.
Such a system would be a “huge” step towards a fairer tax code, said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
The organization’s own research said the top 1% paid almost a quarter of the combined state, local and federal taxes in the country and took in just over 20% of the income. “The tax code is mildly progressive when you put it all together,” Wamhoff said, but the code could further in taxing the riches of the super-wealthy.
ITEP did its analysis pre-pandemic, and did not factor in unrealized capital gains — doing that, the results would likely look a lot different, he noted. Read more
