WASHINGTON (AP) – Hillary Rodham Clinton plans later this week to propose raising capital gains taxes for some investors, part of a larger campaign effort to encourage greater focus on longer-term economic growth rather than more immediate gains for investors.
The new rates would be pegged to the duration of the investment, with short-term holdings taxed at a higher percentage.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama proposed raising the 23.8 percent capital gains rate to 28 percent for the highest earners. While Clinton’s proposal is still being finalized, her rate would likely be higher than Obama’s for the shortest-held investments, according to a campaign official who spoke anonymously to discuss plans still being developed. Currently, gains on securities held for more than a year are taxed at the same rate as those held for decades.
Clinton’s proposal marks a shift from her 2008 campaign, when she promised not to raise capital gains rates higher than the 20 percent bracket established during her husband’s administration. At the time, the rate was 15 percent – a result of the tax cuts championed by then-President George W. Bush.
“I wouldn’t raise it above the 20 percent, if I raised it at all,” Clinton said in an April 2008 debate.