Donors urge Kamala Harris to ditch a proposed tax on ultra-wealthy Americans

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Kamala Harris’s wealthy backers are urging her to ditch a proposed tax on ultra-rich Americans, a new report reveals.

Harris said she supports a plan that would require Americans worth at least $100 million to pay taxes on unrealized gains. Currently, the government only taxes profits from stocks — known as capital gains — once they’re sold. Under her proposal, these assets would be taxed as they gain value, regardless of whether they’ve been sold.

An estimated 10,000 ultra-wealthy Americans would be impacted by this tax, NBC News reports. The plan would only apply to individuals with at least $100 million in wealth who do not pay at least a 25 percent rate on their income.

Those ultra-wealthy Americans would also only pay taxes on unrealized capital gains if at least 80 percent of their wealth is in tradeable assets.

Now, some donors are urging Harris to drop the proposal, the Times reports, citing seven sources familiar with the situation.

Several donors have complained about the plan to top allies and campaign staffers. At least one of these top donors has spoken with Harris personally, encouraging the vice president to consider alternate proposals — such as taxing ultra-wealthy Americans on borrowing against their wealth, according to the Times.

Other top donors, however, have publicly said they aren’t too concerned as policies haven’t been solidified.

“In my interactions with them, the key is she focuses on her values and is not an ideologue about any particular program,” billionaire Mark Cuban told the Times. “From what I’ve been told, everything is on the table, nothing’s been decided yet.”

The Harris campaign also told the Times that the vice president believes “billionaires and large corporations should pay their fair share in taxes, like everyone else.”

“They should have to pay a minimum tax rate because it’s not right that they pay a lower income tax rate than a teacher or firefighter,” spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak told the outlet.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is seeing a healthy flow of cash. Her campaign raised $310 million in the last 10 days of July — more than double the Trump campaign’s $138 million over the whole month — with a big boost from grassroots and first-time donors after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed the vice president.

Harris has also released other tax proposals, including increasing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, which Trump set into law during his presidency. The plan could reduce the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years, according to analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Harris, like Trump, has also supported policies to end taxes on tips. However, she has proposed a $75,000 annual income cap on the framework to prevent higher earners from avoiding taxes on their tips.

The Independent has contacted Harris’s campaign for comment.