Capital gains tax is a winning strategy for corrupt governments because the gains are fake and it steals more of people's real wealth. The "gains" in capital gains is really fiat currency losing value (that is inflation). Consider QE as over supplying capital. The capital actually goes down in value, causing "investments" to appear to go up. This is why governments love capital gains taxes. Inflation (currency debasement) causes assets to appear to make gains, when the actual value may actually be going down. Governments benefit. Unfortunately, your tangible wealth actually may go down while the state sucks all the gains away you could have made. Psychologically, you may feel ok with this phenomenon, because it looks like you are wealthier now. Government benefits from inflation because they can spend your money before you actually hand any taxes over to them. Then they tax the theft they created. For them, it's a win-win.