Trump weighing effort to remove capital gains tax on home sales

President Donald Trump said he is considering a proposal to end capital gains taxes on home sales in a bid to boost the housing market.

“We’re thinking about that,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office. “But would also unleash it just by lowering the interest rates. If the Fed would lower the rates, we wouldn’t even have to do that. But we are thinking about no tax on capital gains on houses.”

Trump was asked about the plan by Brian Glenn, a reporter for the conservative Real America’s Voice network who is in a relationship with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

The Republican lawmaker recently introduced a bill called the “No Tax on Home Sales Act” that would eliminate federal capital gains tax on sales of primary residences.

“Nobody knew that, how did you find that out?” Trump asked Glenn.

Under current law, filers can exclude as much as $250,000 from taxable income on capital gains made on primary homes. But that amount — which is double for couples filing jointly — has not been raised since 1997. 

The National Association of Realtors estimates that around 29 million homeowners could have enough equity in their homes to exceed the cap for single filers, particularly in high-priced markets such as California and Massachusetts.