[acheron9383]

It seems like, if you wanted to help stop the wealthy from ducking paying taxes, one should just stop providing a special long term capitol gains tax and tax capitol gains the same as income. It simplifies the tax code, stops punishing workers who receive a wage over those who earn investment income, and doesn't require a bunch of new accounting to implement. My cynicism hat tells me the reason it isn't the policy goal is that it could actually pass in the US, the wealth tax likely never will.

[bhupy]

The reason why long term capital gains tax is taxed at a lower rate is to index for inflation. Inflation on short term income is negligible. As a matter of tax policy, it is much simpler to reduce the rate than to compute a very large inflation deduction.

> the wealth tax likely never will.

It also requires a Constitutional amendment, because the Constitution only allows the Federal government to levy taxes on realized income (16th Amendment).