Report: Kamala Harris Wants to Hike Taxes by $5 Trillion

Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic plan would increase taxes by $5 trillion over ten years, according to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

Harris’s campaign announced an enormous economic package on Monday that would undo former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, claiming it would be part of “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share.”

Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, lowered income tax rates, and doubled the standard deduction.

Harris wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, saying it would reduce the deficit by $1 trillion over a decade.

Harris also claimed she would uphold President Joe Biden’s promise to not raise taxes on those who make $400,00 or less per year. Despite this claim, the Biden-Harris administration has increased Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement, which is estimated to take $20 billion from working-class Americans.

Harris’s economic proposal would also raise the capital gains and dividends tax more than twice as high as China’s, or 44.6 percent. China has a capital gains tax of 20 percent.

ATR wrote:

China’s capital gains tax rate is 20%. Is it wise to have higher taxes than China?

Under the Harris plan, the combined federal-state capital gains tax exceeds 50% in many states. California will face a combined federal-state rate of 59%, New Jersey 55.3%, Oregon at 54.5%, Minnesota at 54.4%, and New York state at 53.4%.

The plan calls for an annual 25 percent minimum tax on unrealized gains for those making more than $100 million. Unrealized gains are, on paper, gains in an investment, per Investopedia. Gains are only “realized” when an investor sells an investment for more than its initial price.

ATR noted a poll saying that 76 percent of independents oppose taxes on unrealized gains.

Other major Harris tax increase proposals include:

• Having small business owners pay taxes on their individual tax returns, up to 39.6 percent from the current 37 percent
• Imposing a second “death tax” — a mandatory capital gains tax at death — in addition to the current death tax
• Imposing a 21 percent global minimum corporate tax rate, which goes beyond the Organization for Economic Development’s (OECD) current 15 percent global minimum tax rate
• Quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks, which would impact Americans’ 401(k)s and other retirement accounts
• A 30 percent federal excise tax on electricity used in cryptocurrency mining
• A $37 billion tax on American energy
• A 32 percent increase in Medicare taxes

In sum, ATR said that these Harris tax increases and other proposals would boost taxes by $5 trillion on American households and businesses.