Last week, former U.S. Senator John Breaux, a spokesman for Saving America’s Family Enterprises (SAFE), joined “The Chris Stigall Show” on Philadelphia’s WNTP for a discussion about protecting Americans from devastating taxes on their unrealized income.
Listen to the interview here.
SAFE and Sen. Breaux recently filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to declare taxes on unrealized gains–which have been proposed in Congress and President Biden’s budgets–unconstitutional.
On the threat of taxes on unrealized gains: “Doesn’t make any sense”
“There are proposals in Congress – both from this administration and from some Democrats – that would say, ‘we want to tax your gains before you receive the gains.’ And I think it’s very clear that that would be unconstitutional. … I call it a guess tax because we’re going to guess what you could make if you sold this piece of property that you have, and we’re going to tax you on what you might be able to sell it for. That doesn’t make any sense.”
On closing the tax gap: “Let’s collect the taxes that are already on the books”
“Our point is, look – there are about $600 billion in what they call the tax gap—of taxes that are already owed by the existing law that’s on the books that is not being paid. So, if you need more revenue, let’s just collect the taxes that are already on the books that are fair and constitutional instead of trying to go off in this direction, which is a huge mistake.”
On the threat to family-owned businesses: “It would force people to actually sell the property”
“If you have a family farm that’s been successful, but you have a lot of property, they could come in and value that property – or what it could be worth – if you sold it today. But you haven’t sold it yet. What they’re saying is that every year you have to value your assets and then pay taxes on what you could get if you were to sell that piece of property. It would force people to actually sell the property to pay their taxes.”
