The centerpiece of President Obama’s plan to increase taxes on the wealthy to fund taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. credits for the middle-class is increasing the top tax rate on capital gains and dividends for high-income taxpayers.
Currently, the top capital gains and dividend tax rate for couples earning over $450,000 and singles with incomes above $400,000 is 20 percent. In addition, the Affordable Care Act subjects this investment income to an additional 3.8 percent Medicare Hospital Insurance Tax. This brings the combined capital gains and dividend tax rate for high-income taxpayers to 23.8 percent.
The President is proposing to increase the combined rate on capital gain and dividends to 28 percent. This means an ordinary rate of 24.2 percent on capital gains and dividends plus the 3.8 percent HI tax.
Tax Foundation economists used our Taxes and Growth (TAG) dynamic tax model to estimate the macroeconomic effects of the combined rate of 28 percent. While the stated intent of the proposal is to target only high-income families, a dynamic analysis indicates that the effect on the economy would not be costless, nor would the impact be solely felt by wealthy taxpayers—all other income groups would see lower after-tax incomes. Moreover, the plan would actually lose tax revenues, not gain them.
Table 1 below summarizes the annual economic effects of the proposal at the end of the adjustment period (roughly 5 to 10 years). The level of the overall economy (GDP) would be .80 percent lower than would otherwise be the case. This translates into roughly $142 billion less GDP per year. Also, the nation’s capital stock would fall by 2.29 percent and the wage rate would shrink by 0.69 percent. The later may sound insignificant, but as Table 2 shows, it would mean $461 less income for a family earning between $50,000 and $75,000.
A smaller economy means less revenues for the federal Treasury. According to conventional (or “static”) scoring, the plan should bring in roughly $20 billion per year in new revenues, a dynamic analysis—which accounts for the effects of the smaller economy—indicates that the plan would actually lose nearly $12 billion in federal revenues.
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Economic Effects of Raising the Top Capital Gains and Dividend Tax Rate to 28 Percent (24.2 Percent Ordinary Rate with 3.8 Percent Investment Surtax) |
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ECONOMIC AND BUDGET CHANGES VERSUS CURRENT LAW |
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(billions of 2015 dollars except as noted) |
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Gross Domestic Product |
-0.80% |
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Capital Stock (Plant, Equipment, Buildings, etc.) |
-2.29% |
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Wage Rate |
-0.69% |
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Private Sector Hours Worked |
-0.14% |
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Full-time Jobs Equivalent |
-134,579 |
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Dynamic Revenue |
-$11.8 |
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Static Revenue |
$19.9 |
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GDP Change in Dollars (Lost Income) |
-$141.8 |
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Source: Tax Foundation’s Taxes and Growth Model |
Table 2 illustrates the distributional effects of the President’s capital gains taxA capital gains tax is levied on the profit made from selling an asset and is often in addition to corporate income taxes, frequently resulting in double taxation. These taxes create a bias against saving, leading to a lower level of national income by encouraging present consumption over investment. plan under both static scoring and dynamic scoringDynamic scoring estimates the effect of tax changes on key economic factors, such as jobs, wages, investment, federal revenue, and GDP. It is a tool policymakers can use to differentiate between tax changes that look similar using conventional scoring but have vastly different effects on economic growth. . The static scoring clearly shows that the incidence of the tax falls largely on taxpayers earning over $500,000 per year. However, once all of the macroeconomic effects of the policy are estimated by the dynamic model, we can see that after-tax incomes fall for families up and down the income scale because of the policy’s effects in reducing GDP, investment, wages, and hours worked.
Taken together, these results suggest that while targeted to the wealthy, raising the combined top capital gains tax rate to 28 percent would negatively impact the economy, jobs, family incomes, and federal revenues.
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Distributional Effect of Increasing the Top Capital Gains & Dividend Tax Rate from 20% to 24.2% |
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Dollar Amounts in 2015 Dollars |
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All Returns |
STATIC |
DYNAMIC |
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AGI Class |
After-tax Income |
After-tax Income |
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($ millions) |
$ Per Filer |
($ millions) |
$ Per Filer |
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0 – 5,000 |
0 |
0 |
-268 |
-22 |
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5,000 – 10,000 |
0 |
0 |
-823 |
-66 |
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10,000 – 20,000 |
0 |
0 |
-2,938 |
-128 |
|
20,000 – 30,000 |
0 |
0 |
-3,797 |
-205 |
|
30,000 – 40,000 |
0 |
0 |
-4,072 |
-280 |
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40,000 – 50,000 |
0 |
0 |
-3,746 |
-343 |
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50,000 – 75,000 |
0 |
0 |
-8,897 |
-461 |
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75,000 – 100,000 |
0 |
0 |
-7,358 |
-631 |
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100,000 – 150,000 |
0 |
0 |
-8,462 |
-817 |
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150,000 – 200,000 |
0 |
0 |
-4,062 |
-1,136 |
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200,000 – 250,000 |
-1 |
-1 |
-2,079 |
-1,386 |
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250,000 – 500,000 |
-61 |
-31 |
-4,014 |
-2,042 |
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500,000 – 1,000,000 |
-1,287 |
-2,231 |
-3,538 |
-6,134 |
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> 1,000,000 |
-15,737 |
-48,987 |
-21,826 |
-67,939 |
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TOTAL |
-17,086 |
-121 |
-75,879 |
-539 |
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Sources: Tax Foundation Calculations and IRS Public Use Tax File, 2008 |