😂 Even worse:
“The value of your stocks went up last year. You owe us tax on those gains.”
“Yea but they’re all down this year. I’d have to sell half of them just to pay that tax.”
Now imagine millions of people having to do this, and how many companies would tank and layoffs would result from it.
I'm sure you can offset unrealised capital losses against your income ... like you can do with depreciation
There's a timing issue though. Taxes are assessed on previous year but your stock value is market price. If imagine it's April 2025... your stocks appreciated crazy high in 2024 so u owe a huge amount of unrealized gains tax. But right now it's April 2025 and stocks tanked in February. You now have to sell at a loss to pay your unrealized gains taxes.
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