Kamala Harris demands homeowners give up to nearly half their profit in taxes when selling their homes

Kamala Harris is demanding that Americans give up to nearly half the profits, or capital gains, on their house if they decide to sell it. The endorsement of the policy comes after Harris has been hit on other economic issues such as price controls and inflation.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Harris endorsed Joe Biden's Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal this week. Many have sounded the alarms on the proposal, as it allows for up to a 44.6 percent tax rate on long-term capital gains if other proposed tax increases are implemented. Any asset that is held for over a year and sold for a gain can be considered to be taxable as a long-term capital gain.



This would be over a 100 percent increase on taxes for capital with few exceptions, as the highest general capital gains rate sits at 20 percent and those making under $492,000 a year are taxed at 15 percent.

According to the proposal, Harris wants to shift the capital gains to mirror the income tax rate for wealthy Americans. They could be subject to a 44.6 percent on capital gains for assets such as homes and dividends if they are making over one million in taxable income.

This rate assumes a proposed increase to five percent on the general net investment income tax rate as well as an increased top tax bracket rate of 39.6 percent. Both of these measures are backed by the plan endorsed by Harris.

According to Yahoo Finance, Harris is likely to also decrease the threshold for the estate or the "death" tax, which currently stands at $13.61 million for a single filer. Tax and trust and estate lawyer David Brillant told the outlet, "If Kamala Harris wins in 2024, I expect capital gains and estate tax rates will increase significantly.”

In addition, the plan includes a 25 percent wealth tax for those who have more than $100 million in assets. However, this could also affect everyday people holding investments. If the owner of a publicly traded company has a large amount of their wealth invested in the shares of the corporation, the wealth tax could force the owner to sell and liquidate a large amount of shares. This would likely drive down the company's value as well as the shares held by those investing for retirement.

Contributor at The Hill, Richard Shinder, wrote in July when Biden proposed the wealth tax, "'Asset-rich, cash-poor' taxpayers may be forced to sell assets to meet their tax obligations, risking destabilizing asset and capital markets." He added in the piece, "The infrastructure required to administer a wealth tax, including estimating and adjudicating the value of such [uncertain] assets, combined with the inherent conflict associated with IRS officials structurally incentivized to err to the higher side, present significant opportunities for abuse."