The trouble with unrealized capital gains taxes
No one knows what will come out of the sausage making now going on up on Capitol Hill, but let’s take a look at one proposal to raise money to pay for some of the cost of the reconciliation bill. At the moment, capital gains are taxed only when the asset is sold or the owner dies. (The estate tax is just a tax on capital that is triggered by death rather than by sale.) Oregon senator Ron Wyden proposes that they be taxed every year whether sold or not. Unrealized capital gains are certainly a tempting target. After all, for people like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, practically their whole, vast fortunes are capital gains, the cost basis of their stock in Microsoft and Amazon is, at most, a few cents a share.
