“Honestly, I [Mark Cuban] don’t think Elizabeth Warren knows that’s all what she’s talking about when she deals with this. I think she just likes to demonize people that are wealthy, and that’s fine, it’s a great political move for her, but I just don’t think that they really understand the implications of taxing unrealized gains.” ~ Mark Cuban
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon., has proposed a so-called mark-to-market version of the capital gains tax. Put more simply, investors would pay capital gains taxes each and every year in which their assets go up in value, instead of only when they are sold.
Additionally, President Joe Biden wants to introduce a new tax that targets the wealthiest families in the country. It’s called the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax—except that it doesn’t only tax billionaires, it isn’t a minimum tax, and it’s not really a tax on “income” either. But it is a tax . . . so at least they got that part right!
A wealth tax would apply to assets traded in liquid markets, like stocks and bonds, and to illiquid assets like real estate, private companies and complex investments.
This tax on unrealized gains would be not only difficult to implement but also could devastate markets, especially liquid markets, where stocks, bonds and commodities trade.
The annual tax would also apply to illiquid investments like the value of a private company, real estate and other complex investments.
This means that every year, these assets need to be revalued to determine if their worth went up or down (you can write off the estimated loss if the value of the company, or real estate, if realized), but this means annual appraisals for essentially every investment you own.
Unrealized Capital Gains
Capital gains—which are profits (or potential profits) from an investment that goes up in value after you buy it—can either be realized or unrealized.
Unrealized capital gains show you how much your investment has increased in value before you sell it. Once you sell an investment for a profit, you now have realized capital gains.
The difference is that unrealized gains are only on paper—they’re not really real —while realized gains represent real money that’s in your pocket.
Whenever a stock or investment you own is worth more than what you bought it for, you can sell it for a profit—and those profits are called capital gains.
If you decide to hold on to the stock and not sell it, then what you have are unrealized capital gains. After all, you can’t just walk up to your grocery store cashier and pay for milk and eggs with your stock—no matter how much it’s worth on paper.
Problems With an Unrealized Capital Gains Tax
There are three significant reasons why any proposal to make this a reality probably won’t make it too far.
1. A new unrealized capital gains tax would be a headache to enforce.
For a tax like this to work, thousands of taxpayers would need to evaluate the value of all of their assets every single year. That raises the question: How in the world would the IRS—which is already understaffed and overburdened as it is—be able to audit all those filings?3
2. The proposed tax probably doesn’t have enough support in Congress.
“wealth tax” proposals have hit a brick wall on Capital Hill every time it has been proposed. It doesn’t look like this one is any different.
It’s important to remember, Congress treats the release of the budget from the White House more like a list of suggestions than something that’s written in stone.
3. A tax on unrealized capital gains might be unconstitutional.
It may be ok legal to tax unrealized capital gains. The Constitution makes it extremely tough for the government to impose direct taxes. In fact, Congress had to pass a constitutional amendment just to put a federal income tax in place.6
Basically, any tax that is passed must be spread evenly among every person in every state. And a tax on unrealized capital gains could be considered a direct tax because it’s a tax on the personal property of a select group of people.
References:
- https://www.foxnews.com/media/mark-cuban-screw-you-elizabeth-warren-declares-her-everything-wrong-politics
- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/top-democrats-proposed-capital-gains-tax-would-be-devastating-for-markets.html
- https://www.ramseysolutions.com/taxes/unrealized-capital-gains-tax