Posted on 03/26/2022 3:44:18 PM PDT by algore
the worlds richest men, including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, have much of their wealth in the form of stock.
As their stock rises in value, they are able to finance lavish lifestyles by taking out loans secured by their stock holdings. But loans are not taxed as income, and in many cases the interest payments are tax deductible.
The rising value of stock holdings -- known as unrealized gains -- is also not taxed as income. Capital gains taxes are only imposed when the stock is sold.
s a result, some 400 billionaire families paid an average federal tax rate of just over 8 percent of their income between 2010 and 2018, according to an estimate from the White House Office of Management and Budget and Council of Economic Advisers.
However, critics of a 'wealth tax' argue that treating unrealized gains as income is unfair and could lead to unintended consequences.
If billionaires are forced to pay taxes on the rising values of their stocks, even before they sell them at a profit, they could be forced to sell off control of companies that they founded in order to pay their tax bills, critics say.
Under Biden's new plan, billionaires already paying more than 20 percent in federal taxes would not owe additional taxes, according to the Post.
The taxes paid toward the minimum tax would count toward whatever billionaires owe whenever they sell their stock and pay ordinary capital gains taxes.
'The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will ensure that the very wealthiest Americans pay a tax rate of at least 20 percent on their full income,'
'This minimum tax would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Life insurance payouts are tax free for everyone.
Foreign income is taxable unless you illegally hide it. Foreign corporations take jobs away from US.
Taxes must be paid upon sale of property whether it’s leased or not.
So what if you loan art to a museum. You still owe taxes if you sell it.
There are lots of good books on legally reducing taxes, none on illegal means.
I’m thinking the new borders could extend past Greenland and all the way over into Siberia.
There was an interesting idea for buying Siberia for $2Trillion back in the 1980s. Imagine where we’d be right now if we had done it.
That is very important to repeat over and over again. Every tax is snuck into the law by claiming it will only affect a very small and usually unpopular group of people. And then it ends up after a few years that the law applies to everybody.
In this case taxing unrealized gains is just a way to siphon money out of people's pockets. An unrealized gain is just that, you have not received any income, but your property supposedly is worth more.
Imagine this applied to houses. Every year you will owe taxes on the increase in value of your house, regardless of whether you want to sell it or not. And if you happen to be in an area where house values are appreciating a lot you'll end up losing your house to pay the tax.
Needless to say inflation causes the "value" of everything to increase because federal tax law does not allow for inflation adjustment of the basis value of assets. So now you will pay an income tax based on how much inflation is happening.
I agree with your overall conclusions, but theoretically if an entire communities property value increases, then each person's share of the total remains the same. The problem of increasing property taxes doesn't come from the increase in value of the property, but the increase in spending by the government, and therefore an increase in the amount of money to be raised from the property taxation.
Ostensibly the purpose of taxation is to raise revenue.
Practically, taxation has been used to reward certain behaviors and punish other ones.
Biden is too Stupid and Brainless
Obama isn't running anything behind the scenes. He's stupid and brainless also, just not as much as Biden.
However, the same people that were running things behind the scene when Obama was president are running things now. Both Obama and Biden are puppets.
Soo, what makes the government a better spender of our wealth? If u need an answer look at the federal debt!
Why? Don't you like having to first read SEVEN paragraphs before confirming that the article is talking about Biden, and not the tin-plated dictator of, say, some Caribbean island?
Regards,
Confiscation of ALL of their assets are a spit in the bucket compared to the TRILLIONS we spend on welfare in this country and the BILLIONS supporting illegal aliens.
The point is that the wealthy have an amazing variety of ways to legally defer income.
If wealth is taxed they will have dozens of “loopholes” so they can minimize or defer those taxes as well.
The general concept is that they create legal entities that generate the cash they need when they need it—no sooner and no later.
I know some very wealthy folks, and they didn’t get that way by paying a lot of taxes—and they are very determined to make sure their heirs are the beneficiaries, not .gov.
;-)
What’s a family?
At the Federal level, it should only be for national defense, infrastructure (like interstate highways and bridges) and maybe a few buildings in DC for our elected representatives to pontificate a few weeks a year and do their thing on a very limited scale. All the rest is nonsense or can be done at the state and local levels.
Privatize Social Security. Welfare should be done very locally. If you have a bum in your neighborhood, give him your old coat and leftovers from your dinner if you want.
Keep taxes simple. Eliminate withholding. Go to a flat rate system. Say three percent. So somebody making $100,000 a year owes $3,000. Somebody making a million will pay $30,000. Your local coffee barista making $20,000 will pay $600. Let him/her keep the tips tax free. Senior citizens pay zero tax.
Simple. No loopholes. No deductions. You earn "X" you pay "X".
That’s roughly the same point I made in my original post. The only point different is that I wouldn’t call them loopholes. I call them tax exemptions written into the law to encourage whatever it was that the politicians wanted to encourage at the time they wrote the law.
The idea is to encourage the country to produce wealth which like the tides, raises all boats, and then tax income, which raises governmental revenue. Taxing wealth makes everyone poorer.
OK—but I think your point is theoretical.
In the real world (especially in this modern era) the “rules” are easily avoided (yes legally) by the very wealthy.
That is why theoretical discussions quickly become irrelevant.
“Taxing the rich” is like herding cats.
It is not just bad policy, it is silly-like taxing Unicorns.
That was sarcasm, right?
Oh yes, Sarcasm to the max. Man
The people with the highest property taxes are all in very liberal Democrat states. Democrats hate their voters.
Also the wealthy like to buy gold coins and store them in safe deposit boxes.
The wealthy folks I know prefer fine art.
There are some amazingly clever tax games you can play with that particular asset.
Hint: Set up non-profit “museums” to hold the art for you...put relatives on the board and staff of the non-profit—all perfectly legal—or just control the board of existing non-profit museums.
If you visit any of the zip codes with lots of mega rich folks you will find a large number of boutique museums in the commercial district.
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