Posted on 08/01/2018 12:06:00 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
To pay off the ~$21 trillion dollar federal debt, which amounts to about $60,000 per American, it is probably necessary to have annual federal wealth taxation.
It is best to introduce the federal wealth tax when asset values are high, so a smaller percentage of rich people's assets have to get taxed to pay off the national debt.
The tax might be levied upon the total of net personal property financial holdings and the equity in real property.
The rates might be:
1% on the equity in real property habitually resided in by the filer(s),
2% on the equity in agricultural land, less .05% for each year owned & habitually worked personally, up to 20,
2% on the equity in other real property not habitually resided in by the filer(s),
2% on the net worth in personal property financial holdings, other than common stock, and
4% on the net worth in common stock.
The rate is higher on common stock because most of modern great wealth is in the form of common stock.
Joint returns might be permitted that include children, parents, and the spouse/domestic partner of one specified filer. Joint returns would reduce the artificial shuffling of assets between related persons to reduce taxation.
There might be exemptions, from the tax due, of $100 for each year of a filer's age up to age 65, less $100 for each year of a filer's age above age 65, as of January 1 of the tax year. Age-based exemption amounts adjust moderately well for adult wealth accumulation and old age spending.
Example 1:
Mary, age 62, and Bob, age 63, own a $700,000 personal residence outright and $100,000 in common stock.
The tax on the residence would be $7,000 and the tax on their common stock $4,000,
with an exemption of $6,200 for Mary and $6,300 for Bob,
so they would not owe any federal wealth tax.
Example 2:
Jean, age 56, and Jim, age 58, own a $450,000 personal residence and a $150,000 rental apartment outright.
The tax on the residence would be $4,500 and the tax on the rental apartment $3,000,
with an exemption of $5,600 for Jean and $5,800 for Jim,
so they would not owe any federal wealth tax.
Example 3:
Anne, age 42, and Peter, age 45, own a $1,000,000 personal residence outright and $200,000 in common stock.
They had no children and Peter's parents are dead.
Anne's mother, age 63, and father, age 69, own a $300,000 house outright and $150,000 in common stock.
Anne and Peter would file a joint return with her parents.
The tax on the residences would be $13,000 and the tax on the common stock $14,000,
and after their exemptions of $4,200, $4,500, $6,300, and $6,100 for a total exemption of $20,100,
they would owe a federal wealth tax of $6,900.
Example 4:
Terry, age 50, and Paul, age 49, own $300,000 personal residence together with a $100,000 mortgage.
Terry has a teacher pension right worth $700,000.
Paul has a city police pension right worth $800,000.
Terry and Paul would file separate returns, with their respective parents.
Terry's mother, age 73, and father, age 75, own their $200,000 house outright and $20,000 in Treasury bonds.
Paul's mother, age 70, and father, age 71, own their $250,000 house outright and $50,000 in common stock.
Terry and Paul have two children, Patty, aged 26, and Debbie, age 28, each with $2,000 saving accounts.
Paul's return would take the children since his side is better off financially.
Terry's and her parents' return would have a tax on her housing equity of $1,000, on her pension right of $14,000, on her parent's house of $2,000, on her parents' Treasury bonds of $400, for a total of $17,400,
with exemptions for Terry and her parents of $5,000, $5,700 and $5,500 for a total exemption of $16,200,
so Terry and her parents would owe a federal wealth tax of $1,200.
Paul's and his parents' and children's return would have a tax on his housing equity of $1,000, on his pension right of $16,000, on his parent's house of $2,500, on his parents' common stock of $400, on his childrens saving accounts of $80, for a total of $19,980,
with exemptions for Paul and his parents and his children of $4,900, $6,000, $5,900, $2,600 and $2,800 for a total exemption of $21,200,
so Paul and his parents and children would not owe a federal wealth tax.
Example 5:
Mark Sugarhill, age 38, owns $10 billion in common stock and a $16 million mansion outright. He bought and gave multi-million mansions to all his direct relatives years ago.
The tax on Mark's stock would be $400,000,000 and the tax on his mansion would be $160,000,
and after his exemption of $3,800, Mark would owe a federal wealth tax of $400,156,200.
If illegals are granted amnesty and citizenship, this will happen.
“And those who choose to NOT buy property do NOT get taxed after their initial toil tax.”
Their landlord does, and collects the needed amounts monthly.
Of course one can try being homeless.
Up north, the city police allegedly would drive the homeless into the sticks and take their shoes.
Down here, one officer allegedly pounded the head of a homeless man into the side of the bus shelter.
Ah, voluntary!
Article I, Section 9, Clause 4: “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
There could be an April 14 and an April 15 tax.
The April 14 tax could be a mix based on income and wealth, with fixed rates on wealth and variable rates on income by state, drawing equally on a per capita basis.
The April 15 tax would be a pure income tax, with complementary rates by state.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 isn’t going to shield left-leaning billionaires, so they had better lean right.
> I listed no rate for chattels. <
I took the “2% on the net worth in personal property financial holdings, other than common stock” to be the tax on chattel property.
And if chattel property (paintings, rare coins, etc.) truly is exempt from a holding tax, then lots of folks would would be investing in those, and avoiding stocks.
YOOYFM!
We disagree profoundly. While an income tax is bad because it penalizes productivity, a wealth tax penalizes both productivity and thrift and is thus worse. I'd prefer a retail sales tax as our main source of funding, but that's a very long way off because it removes government's power over social engineering.
Of which I have, for years, advocated the abolition. You .... not so much.
Karl Marx never suggested a wealth tax, I believe. He was in favor of simply grabbing all the property
So you only want to grab some of it. This year. And more of it next year. And more the year after that ...
Piss off, Karl.
Net worth narrows your target for this supplemental tax to those around age 55 who will have paid off their 30-yr mortgages - those past their peak earning years, least able to absorb a thousand dollar hit...
Every day workers show up at thousands of McDonalds to work, few of who will ever see half of $1.7 million.
I'm sure there are, but the question they have to ask themselves is, why am I here after 6 months or a year? Why haven't I done something to improve my earnings/social standing? Why am I so comfortable "settling" for a minimum-wage manual labor boring as hell job? Why haven't I exploited my own talents? Or moved to where there is more opportunity?
In America today, every single person who is not severely handicapped by health or age has the opportunity make a decent living. Consider the young autistic man who turned his love for crazy socks into a multi-million dollar mail-order enterprise. Or those who relocated to shale oil country, clerical and grunts, and are banking $100K and more? There are people who make extra money (and, sometimes, valuable contacts) delivering groceries or training cats and go on to create a fulltime job for themselves. The secretary who goes into real estate or heavy equipment sales. The carpenter who free-lanced part time as a handyman and now owns his own custom shop. There will always be poor, those with poor health, poor judgement and poor iq-s. But most so-called poor are just 'settled,' and like the grasshopper to the ant, expect those who spent their lives working harder to set their tables.
“The interest on the debt may take over 50% of individual income tax during a weak economy.”
For that prediction to come true, debt service would have to be nearly 20% of GDP- 20% of GDP being the level that federal tax receipts have consistently run since 1945. Hauser’s law.
Nothing remotely like that has ever happened. Interest payments as a percentage of GDP reached their highest level ever in 1991, and that was 3.16% of GDP. It was 1.34% of GDP last year.
“We are getting tired of the low returns and are running down our bank balances. My money and your cheap debt financing are disappearing.”
And that has absolutely nothing to do with your wealth tax theory. It’s a consequence of a global savings glut and very low inflation. We had double digit interest rates in the late 70s, early 80s as a consequence of high inflation and a low savings rate.
The income tax is evil and progressive. It STOPS people from accumulating wealth.
Explain how an income tax helps “thrift” if your money is TAKEN BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN INVEST IT OR SAVE IT?
Gosh - do the Dems in the Congress know this? Might be time to tell them that some citizens are eager for some new taxes - instead of reining in wasteful spending.....
Taxes never contribute to thrift or to any other virtue. A tax on savings (wealth) hurts thrift because it punishes that thrift every year until the money is spent. The tax on income only punishes productivity once.
Oh bull. They are both bad except the wealth tax is more fair to the young first starting out class. The wealth tax punishes geezers so a lot here don't like it.
>>Most pots with 7 figures have gotten augmented by government overspending.
Feel free to tell me how your pot is different.<<
I don’t even know what that means.
If you truly believe in this falderal you should run for something ... a bus, boat or plane to far South America would be a good start.
IBTZ, Comrade!
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