“The primary theme of Biden’s tax plan is to raise rates for those earning more than $400,000, raising the top marginal rate back to the pre-2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act rate,” said Brent Lipschultz, partner in EisnerAmper’s Personal Wealth Advisors Group in New York. “The qualified business income deduction (QBI) available to all taxpayers will phase out for those with taxable income above the $400,000 threshold. Elimination of QBI would effectively raise the top ordinary rate on flow-through income from 29.6% to 39.6%.”
Biden’s plan would also eliminate the basis step up to fair market value at death and subject people who annually earn over $1 million to a top capital gains rate of 43.4% (a 39.6% tax rate plus a 3.8% net investment income tax), Rabasca said.
“Trump’s stance on capital gains would greatly benefit wealthy taxpayers,” with a proposal that includes indexing cost basis to inflation, reducing the capital gains rate and enacting a capital gains tax holiday, which Rabasca called “a huge planning opportunity for business owners and affluent people with highly appreciated assets."
“If Trump is able to enact a capital gains holiday, that would be a huge boon to wealthy clients,” said Robert S. Seltzer, an accountant in Los Angeles, adding that such a measure stands little chance of passing the House. “Not one of my clients has brought up the candidates’ stand on taxes,” he added. “I just don’t think the tax plans are much of determining factor in which candidate my clients will vote for.”