As we’ve been saying for a long time now, if Congress really wants to create jobs, the first move should be to preserve the current tax rates. Taxes on investment income are often overlooked — they’re complicated and unfortunately too many folks in Congress think that they’re only for the rich.
Thus it’s worth paying attention to today’s Wall Street Journal column by economist Allen Sinai, “Cap Gains Taxation: Less Means More.” Sinai lays out a compelling case why keeping rates low — and even lowering them further — actually stimulates the economy and creates jobs.
Congress is set to act, sometime this fall, on legislation that will determine the rates for investment taxes. While we like Sinai’s idea of zeroing out the capital gains tax, we’ll settle for keeping both capital gains and dividends at the 15 percent rate. It’s certainly a good starting point.