By Howard Fischer | AZ Capitol Times
Arizona Republican senators have approved a plan Democrats say is a gift to those who can afford million-dollar mansions.
Current Arizona law says someone who sells a home has to pay taxes on the capital gains — essentially the difference between the purchase price and what is the ultimate sales price.
But that law provides an exemption for the first $250,000 of gain for a single individual — double that for couples. So it is only the excess over that which can generate a tax liability.
What Senate Bill 1633 would do is create an unlimited exemption. So there would be no state tax at all, no matter how much the home had appreciated.
That bothered Sen. Mitzi Epstein. The Tempe Democrat said existing law works just fine for those in the middle class.
But this bill, she said, works for those who may have bought a mansion for $1 million and are selling it for twice as much — people she said who don’t need such a tax break.
