Obama: Eliminate Capital Gains Taxes on Investing in Small Business
By David Feldman at 28 January, 2010, 7:42 am
Whatever your politics, if you’re involved in working with small and middle market businesses, you have to be heartened by Pres. Obama’s suggestion in his State of the Union address last night to eliminate all capital gains taxes on investing in small businesses. I have been in and around the venture capital community for my entire working career, and if there is one political goal they are constantly working towards, it is that. If Congress goes along, this could go a long way to helping rejuvenate the beleaguered venture capital industry. Of course as with all things the devil will be in the details. Will this apply to a PIPE investor buying shares in a public company that has a market capitalization of $50 million? $100 million? Or only small early stage private companies? If this could really happen it could provide a significant opportunity to help smaller companies, the true engine of our economy, grow and, as everyone is hoping, add jobs.
I’ll be following this and try to give you updates when they arise…Fingers crossed!
This will be very interesting to follow indeed. However, I think there will be a lot of skepticism in the venture capital circles until there is something looking like actual legislation. That being said, I too have my fingers crossed. This could be a real boost to the economy and the morale of venture capital.
the president has suggested this before, but i dont know if it was in the budget proposal…..obviously would make the investment environment better and bridge the gap that banks arent filling