Jack Kingston: “The capital gains tax rate has been 28 percent on items that a person sells for a gain, the amount of money that they…”

“The capital gains tax rate has been 28 percent on items that a person sells for a gain, the amount of money that they have made on it. Now, it is ironic because there again we are taxing savings and we are taxing money that has already had taxes paid on it. The typical example that I see over and over again in my area, which is a growth area where we have a lot of senior citizens, many of them have saved all their lives. Now they are in their upper years and they want to cash in maybe some of the stock that they have saved and maybe use it for a medical emergency, maybe for some long-term care, whatever, residential care, but they are taxed at this 28 percent rate. Under our plan, depending on what their bracket is, they would be taxed at 20 percent, possibly as low as 15 percent, depending on their income bracket. Personally speaking, I would love to have zero capital gains tax for people like that, but if we can start with that, I think it will help seniors a lot and, again, encourage people to save money. Our office went back to 1956 Treasury records and every time that the capital gains tax rate was low, revenues from capital gains had increased. But when the rate is high, people hold their assets and as a result there is not much revenue from it. I believe that this is going to be extremely beneficial, not just for the economy but for deficit reduction.”