Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on Capital Gains Tax Regulations

In response to a request from the White House, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel has rendered a formal opinion on the issue of "indexing." We are disappointed that the opinion concludes that neither the President nor the Treasury Secretary nor the Commissioner of the IRS has the authority to act to revise the IRS regulations in a way that would index for inflation the cost of assets bought and sold in capital gains transactions.

The President believes that such indexing of cost would be sound economic policy and would be sound as a matter of fairness. Accordingly, he has instructed the Treasury Department to add to his legislative program a provision that would provide the taxpayer with the option of indexing cost when determining income subject to gain.