Suppose we eliminated the Capital Gains tax on exchange traded securities, and instead....

[OmahaBlueDog]

took 13% up fromt and eliminated the capital loss deduction. The theory would be that you can make a high a return as you can make on your stocks, bonds, options, etc. , but the Government wants there money up front, and if you lose money....that's your problem.

A brief explanation of Cap Gains is found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax_in_the_United_States

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. I would prefer to see a transaction tax on trades

Keep Cap Gains to encourage long term thinking, but raise it to 20%.

[Warpy]

2. Same here

Sucking money out of equities right out of the gate is a bad idea, discouraging investment in US equities and encouraging investment offshore and in areas that aren't taxed.

The capital gains tax needs to be raised. Enough of a transaction tax to discourage HFT by making it far less profitable is essential.

[4dsc]

3. Raise it to at least 30%... nt

[Statistical]

6. How does raising capital gains tax "encourage long term thinking"? n/t

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Because it is still lower than taxes at ordinary income

which is what investments held < 1 year are taxed at.

Under Reagan and Bush the smarter, it ranged from 20% to 29%.

I don't think 20% is too much to ask for unearned income.

Under President Reagan, the capital-gains tax rate was cut again in 1981 to a maximum of 20 percent, then increased in 1986 to 28 percent, with a small additional increase in the early 1990s to 29.19 percent. In 1997, as a result of the Clinton-Gingrich compromise, the rate was cut to 21.19 percent. In 2003 the rate was cut to a 15 percent maximum.

http://www.discovery.org/a/2407

[Statistical]

9. I understand your meaning now.

Just the phrase "Keep Cap Gains to encourage long term thinking, but raise it to 20%" threw me.

I would be fine with 20% (10% for those in 15% bracket) on long term capital gains.

Hell in a perfect world I would have more than 2 categories. Something like.

Short term - normal income
>1 year - 20%
>3 years - 15%
>5 years - 10%

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. I would support that as well

Anything to get rid of the HFT market manipulation by the algos and the 'manage by the quarter' mentality of the C-level.

[napi21]

4. I'd prefer a per transaction tax. Relatively small, but applied

to EVERY TRANSACTION. THAT would slow down the day trading where mostly institutions buy large volumes of shares (a couple of million) & sell them 5-10 minutes later to gain 2-3 cents per share. All this does is cause horrendous volatility in the market. Adding a 2 to 4 cents per share transaction tax would not impede traing but would stop this crazy day trading.

[Statistical]

5. Sadly today it is more like they hold the shares for a couple milliseconds

and sell them back for a gain of a fraction of a penny.

I would support a transaction tax but it should be more along the lines of 0.1 cents per share.

[napi21]

7. 0.1 cents per share is fine with me! It still would stop or

at least slow down this insane practice!

[OmahaBlueDog]

11. +1

I'd agree with that, no matter what is done with Cap Gains.

I have no issue with legit investors -- I just want to penalize those using the market like a slot machine.