Kamala Harris distances herself from Joe Biden with lower capital income rates

The Democratic candidate plans to tax the capital gains of the wealthiest at a rate of 28%, compared to the 39.6% advocated by the president

Kamala Harris has shifted her tax proposal for capital gains to the centre. The Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States has decided to distance herself from Joe Biden, who advocated taxing the capital gains and capital gains of the wealthiest at a rate of 39.6%, like other income. The vice president proposes that they be taxed at a rate of 28%, as she announced this Wednesday during a rally in North Hampton (New Hampshire). The proposal somewhat endears her to Wall Street and the big donors to her campaign. In any case, taxes are not approved by presidents, but by Congress, whose composition will also depend on the elections on 5 November.

“If you make a million dollars a year or more, your long-term capital gains tax rate will be 28% under my plan,” Harris said at the outdoor rally, where she was protected by a security screen, an additional measure taken by the Secret Service following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in June.

Harris’ proposal is, in any case, an increase from the current rate of 20%. To that rate is added a surcharge of 3.8%, which Biden wanted to raise to 5%, for the highest incomes, in order to defray the cost of the Medicare health program. The Democratic candidate has not clarified whether she supports the current president’s idea of ​​increasing the surcharge.

Under her plan, 99% of Americans, including all families with moderate and average incomes, will pay the same tax rate on long-term capital gains as they do now. Americans who earn less than $100,000 will continue to pay no taxes and families with higher incomes earning up to $1 million will continue to pay up to a maximum rate of 20%, according to her campaign, which assures that no one who earns less than $400,000 will pay a cent more in taxes with her measures.

“We will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America’s innovators, sellers, and small businesses. We know that when government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth and creates jobs, which strengthens our economy,” he said.

Incentives for new businesses

Harris also used the outdoor rally in New Hampshire to propose an expansion of tax incentives for small businesses, an entrepreneur-friendly plan that softens her previous calls for wealthy Americans and large corporations to pay higher taxes. Under her proposal, tax deductions for starting a new business would increase from $5,000 to $50,000. Her proposal would allow new businesses to use the deduction immediately or when they start to turn a profit.

“America’s small businesses are an essential foundation of our entire economy,” she said. “One of my top priorities will be to strengthen America’s small businesses. I want to see 25 million new small businesses by the end of my first term,” she added, which would serve to surpass the record of 19 million new small business applications already registered under President Biden. According to the Democratic campaign, small businesses employ half of all private sector workers in the United States, and have created 70% of new jobs since 2026. Supporting them, they say, will be one of the main priorities of her presidency.

Harris promises to launch a small business expansion funding program to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create jobs with low- or zero-interest loans. She also pledges to ensure that one-third of federal contract funding goes to small businesses.

Another pillar of her proposals is to reduce bureaucracy. She aims to make it easier for smaller businesses to file taxes, reduce excessive occupational licensing requirements, modernize outdated regulations and cut unnecessary red tape that makes it difficult for small businesses and entrepreneurs to apply for and receive federal funding and other aid, and incentivize state and local governments to cut bureaucracy.

Her rival, Donald Trump, tries to baselessly paint Harris as a communist and repeatedly calls her “Comrade Kamala,” so her new tax proposals may serve in part to combat that dialectic. At the same time, Democrats insist that Trump’s proposals will only serve to lower taxes for billionaires like him at the cost of increasing the deficit and debt in an unsustainable way.