[ericd]

This is a very interesting point. It seems to me that we should tax capital gains at normal income rates, but only after adjusting the cost basis for inflation. It’s a little insane that we pay tax on the inflation adjustments for TIPs and other supposedly inflation neutral instruments, which all but guarantees that they lose money every year.

[prostoalex]

Yes, incorporating inflation sets the stage for increasing the capital-gains tax.

I am not sure what the counter-argument to that is, but one thing I can think of is increased complexity of a tax return for an average joe investor, who bought and sold a few funds in his portfolio. Opponents will also likely point that an official measure - CPI - can be manipulated for political purposes.

[ericd]

Hm yeah. I'd say that CPI is already manipulated for political purposes. Not sure if this would exacerbate it.