Harris Tells the Business Community: I’m Friendlier Than Biden

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday sought to put daylight between herself and President Biden on tax policy, making it the first issue on which she is trying to stand apart from an administration in which she holds a key role.

Stepping up her efforts to win over the business community, Ms. Harris announced that she would increase the capital gains tax at a far lower rate than what Mr. Biden had proposed — a move that came after pressure from her campaign’s biggest donors to back off some of its most aggressive tax proposals.

Ms. Harris’s proposal, which she introduced at a campaign event in New Hampshire, was directed squarely at business owners and wealthier Americans who are skeptical of Democrats and have gravitated toward former President Donald J. Trump. In the same speech, she rolled out her new plan for an expanded tax break for start-ups.

Mr. Biden had proposed taxing capital gains at 39.6 percent for Americans who make more than $1 million a year. Ms. Harris said on Wednesday that she would tax investment income for those Americans at a rate of 28 percent, a reversal from her earlier support for the tax increases included in the White House budget released this spring.

“If you earn a million dollars a year or more, the tax rate on your long-term capital gains will be 28 percent under my plan,” Ms. Harris said at a brewery in North Hampton, N.H. “Because we know when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth and it creates jobs, which makes our economy stronger.”

Ms. Harris’s proposed rate of 28 percent does not include an additional surtax on investment income, according to two people familiar with the campaign’s proposal. One of those people said a 5 percent surtax would