Wayne Allard: “I wish to speak about capital gains and the way that we look at the estimates that come from a reduction in taxes such…”

“I wish to speak about capital gains and the way that we look at the estimates that come from a reduction in taxes such as capital gains. Earlier this year, I introduced legislation to reduce the capital gains tax to 14 percent and to provide indexing of the capital gains tax from that point out. This legislation builds on last year's tax bill which moved the capital gains rate down from 28 percent to 20 percent. I rise today to commend both the Senate majority leader and the Speaker of the House for their recent calls for a reduction in the top capital gains rate to 15 percent. Both of our leaders have indicated they are introducing legislation to cut the rate. This could be accomplished as early as this year. Again, I commend them for their leadership. I also wish to express my support for a provision in the IRS reform bill that returns the holding period for long-term capital gains treatment to 12 months. Last year, the administration unwisely insisted on extending this out to 18 months. This added complexity to the code and represented another attempt by Government to micromanage investment decisions. There is a great deal of interest in the tax treatment of capital gains due to mounting evidence that capital gains tax rate reductions not only benefit taxpayers and the economy but also increase revenues.”