Quote Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud
Capital Gains Tax is currently broken down into 2 levels; short term which is less than a year and long term investments. The short term is currently at 28%, if I recall correctly, and the long term that would affect 401K programs, long term stock investments in companies is at 15%. The middle class and lower class are the ones with the 410K and other employee options like stocks. THEN if these people decide to sell their homes at retirement that is also Capital Gains.

My parents home has increased in value by 4 times the amount they bought it for back in "68". Middle class factory workers that would get screwed by this plan.

Have a good one!:s4:
Capital gains taxes DO NOT apply to your 401k or IRA investments. Those are already taxed as regular income when you get distributions from the plan. The low rates on capital gains only apply to capital gains on non-retirement plan investments. So the middle class factory worker you mentioned who has a 401k already pays 25% or more, while the Wall Street guy who makes a million a year (or $10 million or $100 million) trading stocks pays only 15% as long as the investment is held over 1 year. Changing the capital gains rate will not affect people with 401ks or IRAs.

The capital gains tax on the appreciation in the value of a home has a $250,000 exemption per person. So $500,000 per couple. So if your parents bought their house for $100,000 and now it is worth $600,000 and they sell it, they owe nothing. They made half a million dollars tax free. If they bought it for $100,000 and now it is worth $1,100,000, they still make a half million tax free, but they pay taxes on the other half million they made.

If we made the capital gains tax the same as the regular income tax, it would not affect people who have their investments
in retirement plans or people who made a good amount of appreciation on their own homes. Unless those middle class factory workers you mentioned have stock portfolios outside of their retirement plans, or have investment properties, or make more than half a million dollars on the appreciation of thier homes, they aren't going to be affected by making the capital gains tax fair. They might even benefit if the extra tax revenue means the overall rates could be decreased or the deficit brought under control.