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In reply to the discussion: FAIL. Obama LOWERED Capital Gains Tax from 40% to 20%! [View all]bluestate10
(10,942 posts)Any security that is held two years or longer qualify for the capital gains rate, that rate was 15%. Obama got the rate increased to 20%. Any security that is sold with a gain but not held for 24 months generates what is called a short term gain, that gain is taxes at roughly the taxpayer's tax rate.
Rich people make money and pay at the capital gains rate of 20% instead of their 39.5% rate because they seldom, if ever, sell earlier than 2 years due to the amount of money that they have.
You should be crying about the difference between treatment of capital gains and gains from investment in businesses that actually end with people being hired and getting benefits. The tax rate on business investment is taxed at the corporate tax rate, which is around 10% higher than the new capital gain rate. But I doubt that there will be complaint because some on DU prefer to bash any thing that is remotely related to capitalism.