White House floats capital gains tax cuts as promise if Republicans win midterms

The Trump White House is shopping around a pair of capital gains tax proposals, framing them as future policy commitments should Republicans hold their ground in the November 2026 midterms. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and advisor Larry Kudlow have been publicly discussing two ideas: indexing capital gains for inflation and raising the exclusion on home-sale profits. What’s actually on the table The first proposal, indexing capital gains for inflation, sounds technical but works simply. Right now, if you buy an asset for $100K and sell it years later for $150K, you owe capital gains tax on the full $50K gain. Indexing for inflation would adjust that original purchase price upward to account for the dollar’s declining purchasing power. If inflation eroded $20K of that gain’s real value, you’d only owe tax on $30K. The second idea targets homeowners specifically. The current capital gains exclusion on home sales sits at $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly — a threshold that has been in place since 1997 with minimal adjustments. The administration is exploring bumping those numbers higher, which would let sellers pocket more pro...