Week in Insights: Capital Gains Taxes Deserve More Consideration

In 2021, Washington state passed a 7% capital gains tax on the sale or exchange of stocks, bonds, or other assets in amounts greater than $250,000. The tax was expected to bring in as much as $250 million in its first full year. Actual receipts totaled nearly $850 million.

This highlights two interrelated truths: There’s much more under-taxed wealth than we realize, and states without capital gains taxes give up significant sources of potential cash.

Eight states—Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming—have no capital gains tax, and nine more have rates much lower than their ...