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Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

brookings.edu

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Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#211

Post by chrisco255 »

rhacker wrote: post #125
lend000 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there are people making 10,000 times as much as the highest bracket in a single year suggests whoever is proposing these tax laws does not actually want to solve the problem. There should be brackets going up to a billion dollars, adjusted every time someone makes an order of magnitude more than the highest bracket. Also, making 400K does not make you rich. In California, you are actually bringing home…

Are you serious? 400K definitely makes you rich. As if you do that for 10 years you have 4M dollars, 20 years? $8M I get that COL lowers that, but if you are making 400K you're not renting.

This is the problem. Income and cost-of-living is a spectrum and varies wildly from place to place. And everyone wants to put some kind of hard line on tax rates, etc. To me, this just underscores that income tax, as a concept, is completely fucked. You can offshore your earning and shelter them if you're savvy enough. If you earn your income from capital gains, you're paying lower rates regardless, from whatever percentage of those gains happen to fall in your particular jurisdiction.

A federal sales tax with exemptions for basic necessities (food, rent, school supplies, etc.) would make so much more sense, as already exists in 7 states at the state level.

In this way you don't have to worry about whether income was earned offshore or onshore, if you're buying stuff or services here or importing stuff, you get taxed on it.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#212

Post by bosie »

adflux wrote: post #203
aantix wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why aren’t software engineers valued more in EU?

Matter of scale. A team of engineers working on building a Dutch marketplace has a potential customer base of 18 million. An American company doing the same can reach 300 million. Assuming equal complexity, the American engineer can deliver far more value because his target audience is much larger. Scale can be like a force multiplier for engineers. Makes them deliver more value and employers are able to pay them mor…

What is value in this context though?

Seems for Google the value is actual money and for a startup it is a potential future earning? Yet the startup developer in San Francisco is still (presumably) paid 200k or more? If that startup fails, was the developer overvalued?

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#213

Post by offsthroway »

pydry wrote: post #208
offsthroway wrote: post #128

Throwaway for obvious reasons Since the world is lacking in the department of opinion of wealthy men , let me add something to this discussion: I'm currently in the situation of becoming rich (from a global standpoint, unicorn early employees would laugh at my near future net worth) due to selling my company. I'm having conversations with both tax lawyers and private bankers who are interested in helping me manage my…

>Since the world is lacking in the department of opinion of wealthy men You're serious aren't you?

I was joking, the formatting ruined it :(

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#214

Post by Closi »

mazteraz9 wrote: post #142
maxerickson wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically it's because taxing the super rich wouldn't be enough, so you tax a broad swath of the population. Billionaires (put together) in the US hold something similar to 1 year of federal tax receipts, for example. Tax them into the ground and you get 1 year of revenue.

This is one of the more interesting points that gets lost in the "tax the rich" talk. I believe this is because people's general political point of reference is their individual situation and not the overall system - but from the system point of view it truly is just a drop in the bucket.

Eh, the top 1% of earners are responsible for c15% of income. Bear in mind that these will be on a higher tax band too, so a figure of c25% of income tax revenue is pretty likely - hardly a drop in a budget.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#215

Post by markus_zhang »

sprash wrote: post #102

So a report by the elite (Brookings is essentially Rockefeller) is telling us how elites are evading taxes. Sorry, I expect this PDF to be full of BS.

I think the Rockefellers became so powerful that material wealth doesn't mean much for them.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#216

Post by sokoloff »

gzer0 wrote: post #58
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #38

That's why i'm against high taxes. We get a bunch of random political parties, promising to "tax the rich" and stuff, we get new laws... and what happens? - The poor already pay very little tax - no change there - The rich avoid the tax by doing shady stuff (who remembers the panama papers.. or this.. or many other stories like these) - I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes, and I get fucked hard, and…

Unless you are making more than $400,000, the new tax proposals would not affect you. What is your definition of "middle class"? Someone making $400k is most certainly in the top 1%. What tax changes have occurred so far in the past few decades that are significantly affecting you? I would genuinely like to know

In my state (MA), it takes $473K in individual income to crack the top 1%. Household, the figure is $678K to make top 1%. Figures for CA seem only slightly lower.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#217

Post by cletus »

So here’s several things I’m in favor of:

1. A loan is treated as repatriating any offshore foreign income that you might have;

2. We need to eliminate it at least tackle transfer pricing / profit shifting. One way to do that is to apportion profits based on revenue.

3. Residential units owned by corporations need to be taxed higher; and

4. Owning property in a country or state should make you a tax resident of that jurisdiction.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#218

Post by Trias11 »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #124
Trias11 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government has all the tools to make it worthwhile for billionaires to keep money within the economy. And governments of course has a ways to convince them that doing that is not wise. High taxes is the easiest way to deplete economy from productive individuals and their resources.

Taxes are paid on profits, investing reduces your profits, so if they want to invest, they don't have to pay taxes. Taxes literally are used as a tool to incentivize investing in the economy.

>> Taxes literally are used as a tool to incentivize investing in the economy.

I'm sure taxes has all the good intentions but how well does it work so far if trillions of dollars are escaping in direct opposite directions?

If the tool doesn't work at all - in fact instead of building it just breaks stuff - wouldn't it be a good idea to try a different tool?

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#219

Post by trentnix »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #38

That's why i'm against high taxes. We get a bunch of random political parties, promising to "tax the rich" and stuff, we get new laws... and what happens? - The poor already pay very little tax - no change there - The rich avoid the tax by doing shady stuff (who remembers the panama papers.. or this.. or many other stories like these) - I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes, and I get fucked hard, and…

> I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes, and I get fucked hard, and not in fun way.

And predictably, the responses are whether or not you are actually middle class. Because somehow if you're not, you deserve to be f**d hard I guess...?

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#220

Post by kokx »

devmunchies wrote: post #164
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #38

That's why i'm against high taxes. We get a bunch of random political parties, promising to "tax the rich" and stuff, we get new laws... and what happens? - The poor already pay very little tax - no change there - The rich avoid the tax by doing shady stuff (who remembers the panama papers.. or this.. or many other stories like these) - I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes, and I get fucked hard, and…

for the same reason i believe that entertainment companies should have reasonable prices/practices if they don't want me to pirate movies, governments should keep taxes low if they want the rich to pay them.

I don't think we should count on the rich to not try to find loopholes anyway while keeping their taxes low. I'm pretty sure they would do so whether their taxes are low or not.

Trying to stay on their good side hoping they will "do the right thing and pay more taxes", won't really make that much of a difference.

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