Rochester's David Primo on how the wealth tax proposal will (or won't) work

“The ‘wealth tax’ that’s being proposed in the current budget is really a tax on unrealized capital gains, so the stock that you have not sold yet but which has seen gains would be taxed before it is sold,” says David Primo, the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and an associate professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester. “It applies only to the ‘richest of the rich’ and many questions remain as to how the operational and Constitutional concerns of it will be addressed. This proposal is much different from traditional wealth taxes where the idea has been to assess the wealth of tax payers every year and have the wealthiest individuals pay a tax on their net worth.”

Primo is available for interviews and can discuss the precedent that this current wealth tax would establish with regard to taxing stock investments; if this is the best approach to taxing the wealthiest Americans; if it would even generate enough tax dollars to make a difference with the federal government’s current spending obligations; and more.