To the Editor:
In “The Billionaires Are Getting Nervous” (editorial, Nov. 10), you characterize me, among others, as a “perturbed plutocrat” short on “finesse” who needs to “get a few things straight.” Perhaps we are not alone in that.
By ignoring the details of the candidates’ wealth-tax proposals, which you portray as “innovations that require careful consideration,” you miss an important point.
There is nothing “innovative” about an explicit wealth tax. It has been tried, and debunked by experience, repeatedly around the world, inherently plagued by issues of tax avoidance, asset valuation and, in this country, constitutionality.
As I stated in a recent open letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren, a more constructive path to raising public funds for a progressive legislative agenda that might stand a chance of passing Congress and weathering constitutional scrutiny, and whose revenue-raising potential is unquestionable, could include eliminating the exemption of capital gains from taxation upon death; the carried-interest exemption for private equity and hedge funds; and the capital-gains, tax-deferral preference accorded like-kind exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code.
The current debate, if unyoked from the candidates’ polarizing rhetoric and calculation of short-term political gain through vilification of the rich, could be refocused on suggestions like these and on what the maximum tax rate on individuals and corporations should be.
But an explicit wealth tax is a proven dead end, and there’s nothing innovative about that.
Leon G. Cooperman
New York
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | Leon Cooperman: A Wealth Tax Is a ‘Dead End’
Opinion | Leon Cooperman: A Wealth Tax Is a ‘Dead End’
To the Editor:
In “The Billionaires Are Getting Nervous” (editorial, Nov. 10), you characterize me, among others, as a “perturbed plutocrat” short on “finesse” who needs to “get a few things straight.” Perhaps we are not alone in that.
By ignoring the details of the candidates’ wealth-tax proposals, which you portray as “innovations that require careful consideration,” you miss an important point.
There is nothing “innovative” about an explicit wealth tax. It has been tried, and debunked by experience, repeatedly around the world, inherently plagued by issues of tax avoidance, asset valuation and, in this country, constitutionality.
As I stated in a recent open letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren, a more constructive path to raising public funds for a progressive legislative agenda that might stand a chance of passing Congress and weathering constitutional scrutiny, and whose revenue-raising potential is unquestionable, could include eliminating the exemption of capital gains from taxation upon death; the carried-interest exemption for private equity and hedge funds; and the capital-gains, tax-deferral preference accorded like-kind exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code.
The current debate, if unyoked from the candidates’ polarizing rhetoric and calculation of short-term political gain through vilification of the rich, could be refocused on suggestions like these and on what the maximum tax rate on individuals and corporations should be.
But an explicit wealth tax is a proven dead end, and there’s nothing innovative about that.
Leon G. Cooperman
New York
Source: Read Full Article