Kudlow Floats Capital Gains ‘Tax Holiday’ For Rich As ‘Stimulus’

Donald Trump's top economic adviser said the administration is considering pushing for a "capital gains holiday" in a new round of coronavirus aid.

"There may be a capital gains holiday," Larry Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, told Fox Business on Monday.

Cuts to capital gains disproportionately affect extremely wealthy individuals. In 2018, 69 percent of all reported capital gains went to the one percent of households with incomes above $750,000. Capital gains are already taxed at a much lower rate than regular income.

From the July 13 edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co.:

STUART VARNEY, Fox Business: Can you be specific and tell us what we're likely to see?
LARRY KUDLOW: Well, I don't know that I can be totally specific. We're looking at a lot of things, it's pre-decisional. Formal talks haven't really begun.
But look, certain things the president has said — for example, he wants a payroll tax holiday, that would give about a 6.5% increase to after-tax wages for people either going back to work or have been working all the time.
We'd like to see some unemployment reforms. We like return to work type bonuses of a modest nature. We don't want to give people disincentives not to work.
There may be extensions to PPP, that's to be decided. There may be some targeted, directed assistance from direct-mailed checks to individuals and families — that hasn't been decided yet.
There may be a capital gains holiday, there are a number of items that we've talked about publicly and the president has mentioned. So at the moment. that's kind of the grab bag.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation