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Washington state approves capital gains tax

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Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#221

Post by jacob2484 »

dmitrygr wrote: post #212
verst wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I told you that as an ordinary engineer I am perfectly OK with paying state income taxes and capital gains taxes here in Seattle? Why? For the benefit of all. I am not wealthy by any means given local expenses but I live comfortably. As someone who is better off than the majority of people (as are most of us on HN when compared to the people around us wherever it is we live) I feel it is important to invest i…

Then gift the government money directly, and leave others to make their own decisions instead of imposing what you feel is right on them? Here is the official process "Gifts to the U.S. Government": https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.h...

Why is this being downvoted? I don't want to give more to the government to grow its bureaucracy even more. When they say it's meant for "education", it also means more administrators with useless roles on a tax-funded salaries + pensions which you'll be paying for.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#222

Post by cmckn »

loeg wrote: post #220
lacksconfidence wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concern is usually that (made up numbers) school is budgeted at 100M/yr from the general fund. Then they get a lottery that provides 30M/yr, and 100% goes to the schools. Now the schools have 130M/yr right? But the worry is instead they reduce the funds from the general budget to 70M. The lottery money all went to the schools, but the extra 30M went to the general fund.

Yeah, money is fungible. Earmarking for a specific cause X just means less of X's funding comes from the general fund.

You could think of it that way, but funds such as those created by the lottery are less discretionary than the general fund -- so isn't this a good thing?

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#223

Post by jacob2484 »

whydoibother wrote: post #125
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has changed a lot with antifa having free reign for the last year. Lots of businesses boarded up and leaving. Even the Apple store was just set on fire again .

Somehow, I imagine you aren't in Portland or haven't spent a lot of time downtown. You are regurgitating right talking points.

Even the mayor of Portland (who originally praised the protests) is asking the public to help stop the folks doing violence. How is this a right talking point? Are you ignoring reality?

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#224

Post by refurb »

sickygnar wrote: post #13

Why is real estate always exempt from this stuff? Is there a good reason or is the special interest just large?

Because housing in WA has gone up like crazy so a ton of residents are sitting on huge capital gains. The feds might exempt $250k of gain, but they’d get hit in WA.

We can’t have people to hit the housing lottery pay a dime of those gains as taxes, can we?

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#225

Post by dontreact »

syshum wrote: post #203
evo wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like they're one of the only tools we have collectively as a society to counteract "tragedy of the commons"/negative externality situations. Is a tax that brings the financial costs of an action in line with its distributed societal costs that unethical?

Government taxation is very very ineffective tool, and rarely accomplishes that goal. I would love for you to cite and example of a taxation scheme in use today that is right now countering an actual negative externality Governments do not have a track record for being trust worthily enough to be placed in charge of controlling externalities, it would inevitably be used to usurp power, and liberty from the people, wh…

What are alternatives to controlling negative externalities? My understanding is that they are by definition not fixable by the free market, and anything that is not the free market is government essentially.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#226

Post by smolder »

decremental wrote: post #138
whydoibother wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow, I imagine you aren't in Portland or haven't spent a lot of time downtown. You are regurgitating right talking points.

It's not exactly a secret what's going on there. While I doubt the place is on fire 24/7, the substantial damage sustained to local businesses cannot be denied. It would be difficult to convince someone who was thinking critically about moving their business there that all is well now and going forward.

It's not a secret that the majority of the country has been dragged down into believing political fiction of some sort or another as fact by the relentless partisan propaganda. I'm sure many more people on the right were whipped into anger by the supposed $23 million in protest related losses than will ever read this:

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/coronavirus-clos...

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#227

Post by ghostwriter »

dontreact wrote: post #225
syshum wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government taxation is very very ineffective tool, and rarely accomplishes that goal. I would love for you to cite and example of a taxation scheme in use today that is right now countering an actual negative externality Governments do not have a track record for being trust worthily enough to be placed in charge of controlling externalities, it would inevitably be used to usurp power, and liberty from the people, wh…

What are alternatives to controlling negative externalities? My understanding is that they are by definition not fixable by the free market, and anything that is not the free market is government essentially.

privatise everything so that the owners are able to sue those who negatively impact their assets

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/if-you-want-to-save-the-e...

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#228

Post by efficax »

loeg wrote: post #218
qshaman wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.levels.fyi/

RSUs are ordinary income, not capital gains.

RSUs are taxed as ordinary income but when they vest they become (usually) class A shares. The sale of those shares will incur capital gains taxes, if there is a gain.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#229

Post by jpatel89 »

bruiseralmighty wrote: post #194

Actual nonsense coming out of this government. As a life-long resident one of the main reasons I continue to work in Washington is the lack of an income tax. Exempting real estate is just an extra middle-finger to anyone young and trying to save. This is so painful and short-sighted. Earmarking for education is yet another typical smoke and mirrors 'saint-hood' performance that this government puts on for its low-inf…

Managing real estate is a magnitude more difficult than managing 100 shares of Tesla or maintaining a website.

Let’s agree that value creation should not be the target of taxes. Sin or consumption on the otherhand would be more rational. Can someone enlighten me on the case for taxing value creation and not value consumption?

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#230

Post by smolder »

jacob2484 wrote: post #223
whydoibother wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow, I imagine you aren't in Portland or haven't spent a lot of time downtown. You are regurgitating right talking points.

Even the mayor of Portland (who originally praised the protests) is asking the public to help stop the folks doing violence. How is this a right talking point? Are you ignoring reality?

Any amount of violence is too much, and just deligitimizes the protests and gives fodder to political commentators who aim to do so. Of course you would ask your people to help keep the peace. It doesn't mean it was so out of control as depicted in right wing news, which it wasn't.
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