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Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

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Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#161

Post by maerF0x0 »

sharemywin wrote: post #103
BunsanSpace wrote: post #64

we already have a wealth tax. Have cash? Inflation (cheapens govt debt) Own Property? Property Taxes. Own Equity? capital gains on realization of profits Get Dividends? Dividends are taxed. Income? Taxed. Virtual every form of wealth is taxed. The question should be how much should it be taxed, and enforcement. A wealth tax is a nice song and dance around the issue and cannot be reasonably implemented hence why it's…

say you had a 100m in stock. did nothing but borrow against it until you die. how much tax would you pay. as long as you borrow less than your stock appreciates.

> until you die

Given the amount of future debt we've taken on, it's probably a good thing to have growing deferred income too.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#162

Post by Spare_account »

throwaways885 wrote: post #24
muststopmyths wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess: because they hope to be wealthy some day.

Doesn't everyone? Plus, there's other reasons to be skeptical of wealth taxes, capital flight is a real thing.

>capital flight is a real thing.

Can anyone provide some examples of it happening in an economy like ours?

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#163

Post by tw04 »

cpursley wrote: post #78
jostmey wrote: post #17

I’m more concerned about what happens if we don’t start taxing the rich more (in the US). I’m worried about the class divide turning violent

The top 1% of US taxpayers already cover 21% of the share of federal taxes collected with the top 10% covering 48% percent of taxes. The bottom 50% of income earners pay little to no taxes (11%). https://taxfoundation.org/summary-of-the-latest-federal-inco...

>The top 1% of US taxpayers already cover 21% of the share of federal taxes collected

The top 1% of US taxpayers control over 60% of the wealth. If they're only paying 21% of the tax burden they are GROSSLY under-taxed.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-09/one-perce...

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#164

Post by failuser »

ceejayoz wrote: post #118
maerF0x0 wrote: post #88

I will say that this article points out a CNBC article on "$400k in a big city...". And FAIR seems to be missing that both earnings _and expenses growth_ have been growing very fast for those in cities. Progressive taxation of someone earning $100k per year in San Francisco or NYC is hardly fair. At least prior to covid19 causing a crash in the rental market one could expect to pay ~$2500 a month to share a 2bedroom…

> That's spending 42% of take home pay to have roommates! So, probably not affected much by a wealth tax. > $400k per year is about what it takes to run a middle class family w/ 2 kids in such a city. What? The median household income in NYC is about $63k.

Middle class is not median. I’d agree that $400k is barely enough to get to the comparable middle class living in NYC. Earning below $100k will get you subsidized college, right?

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#165

Post by strictnein »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #71
maerF0x0 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is deeply self serving To the extent that they do it for themselves alone, which is making an assumption about intent. Many wealthy people honestly believe that low taxes drive economic growth that is good for all.

Alabama with its 1901 constitution is proof that the belief is false, no matter how dearly held.

One point of data proves something. Interesting approach.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#166

Post by thaumasiotes »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #6

As a business owner, when taxes are low, I see that as an incentive to pocket profits. But when taxes are high, I see that as an incentive to hide the profits by investing in the future. I know this isn't always the case with everyone. And especially investors have a case that higher corporate taxes reduce the value of their investments, possibly to the point of not making them. But this incentive is so blatantly obv…

> I can only assume that the vast majority of people think businesses are taxed like people. You pay taxes on all of your income. But businesses only pay taxes on their profit. It's a big, big difference that changes the incentives.

People are taxed the same way. There are all kinds of ways to spend your money before paying income tax on it. Most obviously, on health "insurance".

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#167

Post by PeterStuer »

lostcolony wrote: post #43
mhh__ wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly not what you mean but I very strongly believe tax rates should he a minimum where you can set your own (and displayed publicly) tax rate above a certain level for your income. Both physically and online, as someone who grew up not poor but far far from rich i.e. I've still only been abroad from the UK twice in my (so far short) life, I am absolutely sick of rich people saying "I'd pay more tax if I could" as…

Oh please. Of course they don't meant that. Because you can totally give money to the government. https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.h... What they actually mean is "I wish you made me pay more". Because they can't bring themselves to write a check to -give- it away, but -do- feel they should have to pay more. Part of that is the social aspect; why should I, as a rich person, be paying more th…

Saying "I wish you made me pay more" while then turning around and hire the best tax accountants to avoid paying even one cent, and lobbying, funding and grooming politicians that will block any wealth taxes, is just adding insult to injury and insulting hypocrisy.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#168

Post by vidanay »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #6

As a business owner, when taxes are low, I see that as an incentive to pocket profits. But when taxes are high, I see that as an incentive to hide the profits by investing in the future. I know this isn't always the case with everyone. And especially investors have a case that higher corporate taxes reduce the value of their investments, possibly to the point of not making them. But this incentive is so blatantly obv…

This is something that I have not seen very much research about (not saying it doesn't exist.) When taxes are high, then "wealthy" people will search for a method to reduce their tax burden. For business owners and employers, there are two large options for reducing tax burden - increasing employee salary, and increasing re-investment (R&D, infrastructure, etc). Both of which are commonly cited as deficient in modern business practices.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#169

Post by czbond »

vkou wrote: post #154
czbond wrote: post #127

Near 50% of American pay zero federal tax. The top 10% of all Americans pay 69% of all federal taxes currently. This is a point 'left out' of current discussions. Instead of increasing entitlements or adding yet more taxes - we lower the size of the government spending UNTIL it matches where most people pay for the services received in a more scaled manner. Source: https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-inc…

Nearly 50% of Americans are children, students, and retirees.

I should have been more literal - 50% of federal taxpayers.

Re: Media Owned by Wealthy Are Quick to Tell You Wealth Taxes Are a Bad Idea

#170

Post by sempron64 »

sempron64 wrote: post #125

I'm not wealthy enough for a wealth tax to apply, but a wealth tax is a colossal privacy and administrative burden on _every single taxpayer_. Assets must be accounted for when calculating wealth, so the tax service will be required to track and value assets including vehicles, homes, and material good etc. for every citizen to see if the wealth tax would apply to them -- if we didn't report material goods, the wealt…

Another chilling effect may be in motivating barter rather than currency trade so that assets may undervalued. Consider real estate trades or corporate mergers instead of cash purchases that are executed at deflated valuations to lower wealth valuations of the underlying asset. This devalues the dollar in relation to assets.
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