Besides raising government revenues, tax policy provides a carrot or stick for encouraging and discouraging behaviors. Dare to say, we need a few more carrots as well as some sticks to change some of our bad habits and re-orient our investment focus.
First of all, let's lower the capital gains tax to encourage long-term investment, and I mean really lower them. We must encourage a more long-term investment focus on building enterprise that creates value over time and grows businesses. Decrease tax rates to 10% or less on investments held for 10 years and more.
But sorry deal guys and traders, we should increase tax rates on short-term capital gains and extend the term for the short-term rate before we start lowering it to the current long-term rate and then below. People can still make money on day trading and flipping, just not as much. Dealmaking frenzies and flipping may provide fees for many intermediaries, but do not provide stability for local markets, encourage owners to put down roots, or create enterprise with staying power and some level of jobs security. New technologies and systems take time to nurture and we need to enhance the rewards to spur more brainpower into these endeavors. M&As, buying companies, stripping them down, refinancing them, and reselling them as quickly as possible may have their place, but not to the degree practiced in recent years where the result is big pay packages for a few, all those fees, and generally a lot of disruption, lost jobs and lost benefits not to mention often compromised businesses.
We've also talked about raising the gas tax or instituting carbon taxes -- whatever it takes to push us away from our oil addictions. The current $4 gas won't be enough, especially if prices drop back. We learned that lesson 30 years ago when we had a chance to go in a new direction and went back to lowering fuel efficiency standards and buying bigger cars and trucks.
We could also go the flat tax route -- and that has a lot of appeal, except to all the accountants, tax preparers, lawyers and financial advisors who make their living off the current convoluted tax code. Talk about rising unemployment numbers!!!
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
