Online Posts Misrepresent Biden’s Proposed Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 calls for collecting taxes on unrealized capital gains for those who have a net worth of more than $100 million. Unrealized capital gains are earnings on investments that haven’t been sold yet.

The proposal would impose a minimum 25% income tax, including on unrealized capital gains, for people in that high-wealth group.

“Billionaires make their money in ways that are often taxed at lower rates than ordinary wage income, or sometimes not taxed at all, thanks to giant loopholes and tax preferences that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest taxpayers,” a fact sheet on Biden’s budget says. “To finally address this glaring inequity, the President’s Budget includes a 25 percent minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.01 percent, those with wealth of more than $100 million.”

We’ve written about Biden’s proposal before, which he refers to when claiming that some billionaires pay lower tax rates than schoolteachers or firefighters.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, also supports what Biden and other Democrats have called a “billionaire minimum tax.” That support has prompted social media posts and some politicians to misrepresent what it would do.