This report comes in the wake of proposals from President Biden, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to reform the preferential treatment of investment income in the nation’s tax code. Their proposals include limiting the stepped-up basis rule that allows wealthy families to avoid taxes on unrealized capital gains when a family member dies, taxing capital gains received by millionaires at the same rate as ordinary income, and taxing the ultra-wealthy on their unrealized capital gains each year as they accrue.
ITEP’s analysis of the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances finds that unrealized capital gains in excess of $2 million (the income most likely to be affected by the president’s proposal to tax some taxpayers’ unrealized gains at death) mostly flows to a small number of white families. Assets like stocks, real estate, and private business equity that produce significant capital gains (both realized and unrealized) are also highly concentrated among white families.
