Economic Issues in the Taxation of Capital Gains

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of capital gains taxes in the United States, focusing on three major issues. First, it considers the long-run effects of capital gains taxes on the level of realizations and revenues, including the extent to which the literature has resolved the issue of whether the realizations response to a capital gains tax will be large enough to result in a revenue increase. Second, it examines the efficiency implications of capital gains taxes, including effects on saving and investment, the 'lock-in' effect, and effects on risk-taking. Finally, the paper reviews several recent studies of the distributional effects of capital gains taxation