The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments

The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been

Option E

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been

Answer is E

Correct Answer must be (E) for the highlighted errors in other options.

Can anyone please highlight what is wrong with 'were'?

Hi davidbeckham

First of all we cannot use a plural verb 'were' here as our subject is singular.

Rather we could use 'was'. This would be grammatically correct, but then the meaning will have changed. Lets see how.

Original - The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.
Modified - The capital gains tax,levied against profits earned on investments, was the subject of recent political debate.

In the original sentence, we can understand that sentence is trying to say that the topic of 'capital gains tax' is ,up till the present time, the subject of recent political debate.
Now if we look at the modified sentence, it changes the meaning by saying that the topic of 'capital gains tax' was, some time in the past which could be our near past or distant past but definetly not our present or till our present, the subject of recent political debate.

Hence changing the tense will make the meaning change.

Hence 'were' is wrong in terms of both grammar and meaning.

Hope this helps in clearing your doubt to some extent !!!

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