Mccain or Obama. What do you guys think the new capital gains tax rates will be, if any, during the next presidency? Obviously it would be nice to reduce the federal deficit but who wants to see their investments eaten away by tax hikes. It doesn’t exactly spur investing. I think if Mccain is elected he’ll raise it to 20% and if Obama is elected he’ll go to at least 25%.
Obama is definitely going to 25+. In fact, if he’s elected, I think you’ll see a big sell-off in November and December. I think McCain will leave it alone for at least the first part of his term; however, he might change his mind faced w/such a big deficit.
I’m not an Obama supporter but he’s typically said that he’ll bring cap gains back to the levels of the Clinton years. Most assumed that he was referencing the early Clinton years - ie, 28%, prior to when he cut it to 20%. More recently, it sounds like he’ll only increase it to 20%. But it’s likely that taxation of dividends would go back to being taxed as ordinary income. I’d be surprised if McCain pushed for an increase…he hasn’t included an increase in capital gains taxes in any of his economic proposals. Regardless, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire at the end of 2010 and with a democratic congress, it will be difficult for McCain to get them renewed. And really, I don’t envy what either candidate is going to walk into. Tax revenues have slowed drastically as the economy has weakened and the economic stimulus earlier this year has only added to what appears to be a budget deficit over $400 million and possibly to $500 million next year.