Kamala Harris offered new ideas on taxes this week — here’s what she said

Vice President Kamala Harris provided additional details on her tax plans during her campaign this week.

In a speech in New Hampshire, the Democratic presidential candidate outlined her plan to give tax breaks to small businesses and clarified her position on the long-term capital gains tax. She also reiterated her support for a minimum tax on billionaires.

Plans to provide tax breaks to small businesses

Harris introduced a plan to allow new businesses to deduct up to $50,000 of their start-up costs. Currently, Internal Revenue Service rules show that startups can generally deduct much less: up to $5,000 in start-up costs and up to $5,000 in organizational costs.

Harris’s proposal to support small businesses also included plans to help existing small businesses by providing more low- or no-interest loans to those looking to expand. Her plan also calls for easing regulations and simplifying taxes by creating a standard deduction similar to how individual taxes are typically filed.

Taxing millionaires and billionaires

Harris also said she supports raising tax rates on millionaires and billionaires, an issue her predecessor, President Joe Biden, also campaigned on.

Harris has outlined a plan to raise the long-term capital gains tax rate for those earning $1 million or more to 28%. Currently, the top rate on capital gains is 20%, which applies to consumers earning about $500,000 a year.

This is what distinguishes his campaign from Biden’s: He has proposed a tax rate of 39.6% for those earning $1 million or more.

Harris has recently come under fire for supporting Biden’s proposed “billionaire tax.” The measure would impose a minimum 25% tax on unrealized gains for people with $100 million or more in assets. Critics, such as the Libertarian Cato Institute, say the wealth tax would be “economically destructive.”

She did not give specific numbers, but said she would support a “billionaires’ minimum tax” to “ensure the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.” She noted, however, that as president she would push to “tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America’s innovators, founders and small businesses.”