Harris to push capital gains tax rate below 39.6% backed by Biden

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to pare back the capital gains tax increase proposed by President Joe Biden, according to a campaign official.

The move, detailed on condition of anonymity by the official, aims to bolster her efforts to court the business community and deep-pocketed donors in her 2024 contest against Republican Donald Trump. Biden in his most recent budget has proposed a series of increases on capital gains tax rates that would roughly double the tax burden on investments to between 39.6% and 44.6% from 20% for high earners.

The details of Harris’ proposal were not immediately clear. A person familiar said that Harris believes the capital gains rate should be below the 39.6% pushed by Biden in a bid to incentivize investment and ease access to capital for small businesses.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported Harris’ plan.

The Democratic presidential nominee’s intention to scale back her predecessor’s calls for higher taxes on investors comes as her campaign seeks to chart an economic vision separate from Biden in an election in which voters’ skepticism of the administration’s handling of the economy threatens to weigh down her ticket.

She has released a series of economic proposals in recent weeks, including calling for expanded tax credits for parents and $25,000 down-payment assistance for first-time home buyers. Harris plans to pay for those tax cuts by increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, imposing a minimum income tax on billionaires and quadrupling a levy on stock buybacks, according to the person familiar.

Trump has called for a series of tax cuts on corporations, individuals and retirees. Whoever wins the White House in November will contend with a major tax bill next year with parts of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts on households and small businesses set to expire at the end of 2025.

On the campaign trail, Harris’ surrogates have sought to pitch her as a pro-business candidate to donors.

“Her vision is pro-capitalism, pro-innovation, pro-growth, you know, lots of employment, lots of housing. It’s just forward looking,” her husband Doug Emhoff told donors at an event last month.