All tax theorists recognize that capital gains taxes ought to apply only to real gains; that is, those that are adjusted for inflation. This has never been the case in American history. As a consequence, a considerable portion of inflationary gains have been taxed as if they are real, according...

For many years, conservatives have asserted that the Treasury Department has the authority to index capital gains for inflation without legislation. It could simply redefine the term "cost" for calculating basis to mean inflation-adjusted cost, they say. This paper reviews the history of this...

We consider the Merton problem with capital gain taxes. Since closed-form solutions are generally unavailable, we provide asymptotic expansions with small interest rate and other parameters, and then obtain an explicit investment and consumption strategy that effectively approximates the optimal...

We develop an optimal tax timing model that takes into account asymmetric long-term and short-term tax rates for positive capital gains and limited tax deductibility of capital losses. In contrast to the existing literature, this model can help explain why many investors not only defer...

The objector in Anzamco Ltd v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (1983) 6 NZTC 61,522 was a company that had bought and developed a farm and sold it at a significantly higher price. The Commissioner taxed the profits under paragraphs 67(4)(a) and (e) of the Income Tax Act 1976. The court allowed the...

In asset return predictability, realized returns and future expected returns tend to move in opposite directions. This generates a tension between tax-timing and market-timing incentives. In this study, a portfolio choice problem in the presence of both return predictability and capital gains...

This study empirically examines the role of risk sharing between taxable investors and the government on the relation between capital gains taxes and expected returns. Specifically, using an international panel from 26 countries over the period 1990 to 2004, we find evidence that the general...

How should immovable property (in particular residential property) be treated under a value added tax? This paper considers whether proposals to tax all sales of immovable property (including consumer to consumer sales) are preferable to existing models (in which the first sale of new...

This article examines two broad areas of capital gains tax (CGT) design in respect of the taxation of non-residents. The first area relates to the domestic design of the tax and focuses on whether a CGT should apply to all assets held by non-residents or to some limited subset of those assets...

This report explores the history of the taxation of derivative gains and losses - primarily section 1234A - as well as the capital gains preference, the straddle rules, the sale or exchange requirement, the extinguishment doctrine, the assignment of income and substitute for ordinary income...