[ripley]

“Actually, we tax income, not wealth.”

What about inheritance taxes, taxes on interest, taxes on business profits? What is the difference between wealth and income?

Taxing the rich or inheritance taxes or any other tax based on wealth, incoming or static, sounds like a bill of attainder.

Thank you for the response.

[Dilbert56]

Taxes on interest or business profits, to me, are taxes on income. The inheritance tax is an abomination, at the confluence of life's two certainties.

What is the difference between wealth and income?

Not sure of the textbook definition but, to me, "wealth" is your balance sheet. You have cash, bank accounts, investments, a house worth a lot of money, etc. That's netted against what you owe, like the mortgage on the house, student loans, etc. Income is cash flow, money coming in. Salary, interest, dividends, captial gains, etc.

Granted, there is a correlation in that people who are prudent with their income become wealthy.