Lack of Experience

One more big error from the Obama acceptance speach. I'm not suggesting that Senator Obama made this error. His error was in hiring advisors that lack knowledge and experience in fiscal matters.

"I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow."

Now, I would estimate that about 0% of all small businesses and start-ups are subject to capital gains tax. Capital gains tax is a tax on the gain or loss from the sale of capital assets held for more than one year. So, what is a capital asset? Well, real estate (land and improvements), machinery and equipment, furnishings, and stocks or bonds of other corporations. Would you think that any start-up business would be looking to make capital gains on these types of assets? Just to clarify; any business that buys and sells such items as its primary business is not engaged in capital assets. They are selling inventory. So, if your business is developing land into residential homesites, you are selling inventory, not capital assets. The profit from such activity would be ordinary income, not capital gain.

Is Senator Obama the kind of person you want to be running the executive branch of the US Government? Perhaps we should wait until he has a better grasp for fiscal matters.