Washington state approves capital gains tax • Hacker News Board

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#241

Post by fighterpilot » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:00 AM UTC

foobiekr wrote: post #85

leephillips wrote: post #46

I recently came across this comment by Philip Greenspun: “if you bought an asset for $10,000 in 2000, for example, the BLS says you spent $15,700 in today’s mini-dollars; if you sell it for $15,000 in 2021 you’ve actually suffered a loss, but will owe capital gains tax nonetheless” ( https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/04/29/economic-wisdom... ). I’m not a finance person, and this had never occurred to me. Does he…

He has a point. Imagine capital gains in a sustained high inflation period. Even if your investment exactly tracked inflation you’d end up with a very substantial nominal gain, and LTCG uses the nominal value.

I don't understand the point since he'd still be better off than if he just held cash. What am I missing?

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#242

Post by fighterpilot » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:02 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #25

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?

There's a fairness argument that can be made (but probably should only apply to primary residences only) - you buy a house for $100k in Seattle 10 years ago - now you want to move to another neighborhood into an identical house, but both are now worth upwards of $500k - you'd have to come up with the tax difference on the "profit" even though all you're doing is moving between nearly identical properties. Also stock…

That's why we need a land tax instead of a cap gains style tax that applies to transactions.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#243

Post by lawnchair_larry » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:04 AM UTC

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.

A lot of progressives seem to share this delusion and I find it puzzling. I have no idea who started this meme that there are “right talking points” going around about Portland. If such a thing exists, I have no idea what it is or where it comes from. Rest assured, my talking points are completely original and synthesized by my own senses. I’m in Portland quite frequently and was there earlier this month. I have many good friends there as well. I’d offer you some video footage that I took personally, but there is no shortage of it online. Ted Wheeler has even (finally) acknowledged it. The city is an embarrassment, and has gone to shit in the last 5 years.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#244

Post by jdonaldson » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:04 AM UTC

zacharycohn wrote: post #231

jdonaldson wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted you. After reading the comment again I see that it should be interpreted the way you describe.

Yes, progressive vs regressive taxes are a technical term.

Yes, but I think it's a relatively new or transient interpretation. I couldn't find much of an authoritative basis for it. It would be great if you could post any links that you know of.

There's a wikipedia article on it, but none of the key references exist any more : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regressive_tax

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#245

Post by lawnchair_larry » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:05 AM UTC

smolder wrote: post #230

jacob2484 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can assure you that nobody in this conversation got their information from right wing news.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#246

Post by CameronNemo » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:05 AM UTC

tartoran wrote: post #232

CameronNemo wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? What if I buy stocks with the intention of preservinpreserving wealth rather than growing my net worth? In such a case I am just trying to keep up with inflation with as little risk as possible, but the tax policies in place are forcing me to take on more risk. I can't just take a stake in a basket of goods and call it a day. I have to beat the risk free market substantially.

With that return your risk may be 0 but a guaranteed loss is what you choose. If you want to preserve wealth and want to beat inflation go with mutual or index funds, they go up and down with the market and the market beats inflation and appreciate quite a bit more. Or bonds.

All of those are what I had in mind. All of those incur capital gains tax, with the exception of perhaps some govt bonds (which have low yields).

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#247

Post by lawnchair_larry » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:09 AM UTC

smolder wrote: post #226

decremental wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

You’re an example of the boiling frog if you think it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to light the mayor’s condo lobby on fire and riot over 100 days in a row. This has nothing to do with propaganda.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#248

Post by smolder » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:14 AM UTC

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #247

smolder wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

You’re an example of the boiling frog if you think it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to light the mayor’s condo lobby on fire and riot over 100 days in a row. This has nothing to do with propaganda.

I didn't say that was acceptable and don't believe it is.

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#249

Post by mrgordon » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:20 AM UTC

fighterpilot wrote: post #241

foobiekr wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has a point. Imagine capital gains in a sustained high inflation period. Even if your investment exactly tracked inflation you’d end up with a very substantial nominal gain, and LTCG uses the nominal value.

I don't understand the point since he'd still be better off than if he just held cash. What am I missing?

Think of it this way, they could have bought something for $10,000 at the beginning but now that $10,000 item would cost $15,700 and they only have about $13,810 or less depending on state tax. (That assumes a 23.8% tax rate on the $5000 in “gains”)

So assuming whatever they bought doesn’t degrade, it would have been better to buy it in the beginning rather than invest and make less than inflation after tax

Re: Washington state approves capital gains tax

#250

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, May 01, 2021, 3:48 AM UTC

verst wrote: post #16

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

Details are sparse in this article. Looks like 7% capital gains tax, first $250K excluded, real estate excluded. Proceeds to primarily fund childhood education (for now). > For example, stock sales higher than $250,000 would be taxed at 7%. Real estate would not be. 7% (on top of federal cap gains, which are also increasing) is a significant tax rate to start with. If it was 1-2%, I could see people rolling with it.…

The first 250k in profits from capital gains are exempt. It is estimated that this tax only affects the 7000 richest individuals in Washington. Keep in mind we don't have any income taxes here.

> Keep in mind we don't have any income taxes here.

Washington currently has 0.4% income tax for W2 employees, and another 0.6% coming on Jan 1, 2022 unless you have sufficient long term disability insurance by Jul 2021 to be able to opt out of it.

So WA will effectively have a 1% income tax beginning Jan 1, 2022 for W2 earners (aka employees).