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Re:To Understand Rising Inequality, Consider Janitors by banned1 on Monday September 04, 2017 @03:06PM (#15170227)
I think the main argument is previous taxation.

https://taxfoundation.org/why-capital-gains-are-taxed-lower-...

Re:To Understand Rising Inequality, Consider Janitors by albinofrenchy on Monday September 04, 2017 @06:46PM (#15171300)
That is an argument; I just don't think it is a particularly good one. In particular, I think it muddies the water a bit between various forms of things that are taxed as capital gains.

That article goes out of its way to paint a picture of someone purchasing stock in a C corp with money earned from earned income and then eventually sold.

And yes, the corporation would pay a corporate tax rate (although almost certainly south of 30%), and then when that stock is sold, there is likely a 15% hit on the gains.

It is an unconvincing argument though; since salaries from a c corp are taxed too; if previous taxation was a deal breaker c corps wouldn't exist at all.

It is also unconvincing since capital gains are only taxed at the time of realization, it is an entirely different mechanism. As taxes goes, I can't choose to hold off paying taxes on income for a decade and invest that money; essentially compounding that money. But that is exactly how long-held unrealized capital gains work.

And insult to injury -- the entire idea of 'carried interest' is a give away to hedge funders. Even if you kept a low capital gains rate, carried interest as a concept should just be removed from the tax code.