WH Considering Bold Move on Stimulus

We’ve learned that the White House is seriously considering a plan to index capital gains taxes for inflation as part of its economic stimulus package. This would be done by an executive order by the President, not through legislation. Under the executive order, the Treasury Department would define “cost” in assessing capital gains taxes as “historical cost plus inflation.” It’s about time. Such an order would undo an injustice in the tax code that means, as a new National Center for Policy Analysis report puts it, that “investors pay billions of dollars of tax on phantom gains.” The American Shareholders Association strongly supports indexation and argues that if Congress were to challenge or overturn President Bush’s order, “this would make the November election worth tens of thousands of dollars for millions of Americans. They would not forget.”