Washington Capital Gains Tax Opponents Get Support at High Court

Washington state’s tax on capital gains is improperly labeled as an excise tax when it’s really an “income-tax-in-disguise,” outside groups argued in support of a challenge to the tax at the state high court.

The National Taxpayers Union Foundation, the Washington Policy Center, the Tax Foundation, and a group of tax economists and policy analysts invoked a “rose by any other name” and a “bird that walks like a duck” to argue that using a different classification doesn’t change what the tax really is.

“Roses and ducks have defined characteristics and functions inherent to what ...