Chuck Grassley: “I would like to refer to the capital gains provisions of the compromise bill. I discussed last night the benefits of…”

“I would like to refer to the capital gains provisions of the compromise bill. I discussed last night the benefits of seeing capital gains reduced to 15 percent, and 5 percent for low-income families and individuals. But I also want to emphasize the simplification that we are bringing to the capital gains rates. While we still have the 1-year division between short-term and long-term capital gains, we have eliminated the 5-year holding period and the 18-percent rate. It is a small but very important step in actually eliminating lots of lines and lots of calculations that taxpayers face in their annual returns. The Joint Tax Committee has stated that there is much need for simplification of capital gains. The Joint Tax Committee notes that Congress has received continual testimony that capital gains is a source of enormous complexity. So in this compromise, we make a very good start on an important source of complexity in the Tax Code. Let me make clear for my colleagues that for many middle-and low-income families, we make capital gains as simple as possible. At the end of the time period of this bill, middle- and low-income families will pay zero capital gains. Of course, it doesn't get much simpler than that because zero brings it down to nothing.”