"Fiscal Year 2025 Budget of the United States includes a proposal to tax unrealized capital gains: a new, dark turn in the annals of the history of US government revenue collection. Only one of several tax increases sought, it is a terrifyingly consequential one. It could potentially send massive distortions rippling through the US economy, destroy businesses, fundamentally alter how firms operate, drive capital offshore, discourage investment, and immeasurably reshape the American business landscape. At its core, requiring taxes to be paid on unsold financial assets, ownership stakes, fixed investments, intellectual property, collectibles, and other forms of wealth would act as an economic earthquake, disrupting the capital markets that undergird innovation. Such a tax would severely undermine long-term economic growth by choking off its funding, dealing lasting and perhaps fatal damage to both long-standing and nascent enterprises"
