Putting the 'Finance' into 'Public Finance': A Theory of Capital Gains Taxation

Mark Aguiar, Benjamin Moll and Florian Scheuer

No 21165, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Standard optimal capital tax theory abstracts from modeling asset prices, making it unsuitable for thinking about capital gains and wealth taxation. We study optimal redistributive taxation in an environment with asset price movements, adopting the modern finance view that asset prices fluctuate not only because of changing cash flows, but also due to other factors ("discount rates''). We show that a combination of realization-based capital gains and cash flow taxes implements the optimal allocation regardless of the source of asset-price fluctuations. Moreover, the capital gains tax avoids distortions in portfolio choice (the so-called lock-in effect) by targeting total net trades rather than gains from selling individual assets. These results stand in contrast to the classic Haig-Simons comprehensive income tax concept as well as recent proposals for wealth or accrual-based capital gains taxes.

JEL-codes: E2 G1 H2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02
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