Manchin opposes taxing unrealized gains

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal includes a minimum 20% tax on wealthy individuals, but the plan would allow for the taxation of unrealized gains, a move that Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia says that he opposes.

“You can’t tax something that’s not earned. Earned income is what we’re based on,” Manchin told The Hill. “There’s other ways to do it.”

“Everybody has to pay their fair share, that’s for sure. But unrealized gains is not the way to do it, as far as I’m concerned,” he said, according to the outlet.

Biden’s proposal would apply to the wealthiest of individuals, those worth more than $100 million.

“The tax code currently offers special treatment for the types of income that wealthy people enjoy. This special treatment, combined with sophisticated tax planning and giant loopholes, allows many of the very wealthiest people in the world to end up paying a lower tax rate on their full income than many middle-class households,” according to the budget proposal. “To finally address this glaring problem, the Budget includes a 20 percent minimum tax on multi-millionaires and billionaires who so often pay indefensibly low tax rates. This minimum tax would apply only to the wealthiest 0.01 percent of households—those with more than $100 million—and over half the revenue would come from billionaires alone.”

Manchin has previously been an obstacle to Democrats on other issues, like last year when he said that he would not support passing Biden’s “Build Back Better” proposal, a massive spending plan that lacked GOP support.