House panel hears bill to adjust long‑term capital‑gains brackets; sponsor says change helps most filers, opponents warn about farm/ranch sales

The Montana House Taxation Committee on Tuesday heard testimony on House Bill 868, a proposal from Representative Scott Rosenzweig to restructure state long‑term capital gains tax brackets that the sponsor said would reduce rates for most filers while raising rates modestly for the highest earners.

Rosenzweig, Republican of House District 57, told the committee the measure changes multiple capital‑gains brackets and would produce a net contribution to the general fund while lowering rates for the majority of filers who report gains. "This is an extraordinarily slight alteration," Rosenzweig said, adding later that "99.8% of the population will get [a] capital gains tax break option." He said the bill would bring an estimated $13 million to $16 million into the general fund under recent tax years’ patterns.

The bill’s sponsor said only about 13% of Montana tax filers report any long‑term capital gains and that the top tiers represent a very small number of filers. Rosenzweig walked the committee through his handout showing distribution of capital‑gains reporting, saying roughly 516,000 filers exist in the state and that roughly 2,500 filers report more than $250,000 in gains, with a still‑smaller number…