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Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

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Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#51

Post by clutter55561 »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #26
clutter55561 wrote: post #14

That is pretty sad. People would rather spend money on political activism instead of supporting their home state. Imagine if they said instead - no need for tax, here is 15 billion to fund the schools. They could be heroes but choose to be assholes.

[flagged]

Not American, buddy, so I don’t have skin in the game. But it looks extremely bad when people who got rich in the Silicon Valley engage in politics like this.

Even if one disagrees with a billionaire tax, I’m sure there are better ways to engage with politics besides “protect my capital at all costs”.

It is not so much that they oppose, but how they oppose.

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#52

Post by ece »

soganess wrote: post #50
VirusNewbie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Everyone seems to be objecting to the arithmetic error, but what’s more interesting is the underlying assumption: that “Sergey Brin owes $50B” is so morally dispositive that it would end the argument. Brin is not a sympathetic marginal case. He is the standard: founder equity, $1 salary, unrealized appreciation, deferral, and access to liquidity without needing wage income. It is a little strange to look at a very la…

Not only this, but a person with this much wealth cannot possibly consume enough to pay their fair share in taxes. They've already used all the loopholes to avoid income taxes which aren't even progressive for billionaires as mentioned by Buffet.

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#53

Post by [deleted] »

anamax wrote: post #40
wbronitsky wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my reading it is only equity that has monetary value that they are taxing; this has nothing to do with disgorging voting stock, it is merely intended to raise revenue.

For private companies, valuation for the purposes of this tax is company-value * max(% owned, % controlled) From https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/25-0024A1%2... Section 50303(c)(3)(C) says "For any interests that confer voting or other direct control rights, the percentage of the business entity owned by the taxpayer shall be presumed to be not less than the taxpayer's percentage of the overall voting…

[deleted]

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#54

Post by VirusNewbie »

HaloZero wrote: post #28
VirusNewbie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How did you come up with 50 billion? It’s a 2% one time tax no?

No, Sergey owns non pubic, shares that are not available on the open market that have move voting rights. So the tax 'values' those at the % of voting rights as a percentage of the company valuation.

Likewise, Evan Spiegal would have to sell 100% of his SNAP stock the first year because of how the voting rights work.

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#55

Post by VirusNewbie »

anamax wrote: post #38
VirusNewbie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Google is public, so the 5% of max(ownership, control) clause doesn't apply. However, there are a bunch of private unicorns whose founders are subject to the tax even though their ownership is well under $1B. See Section 50303(c)(3)(C) quoted above.

It does apply, because Sergey's shares are not the same kind available on the public exchange.

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#56

Post by VirusNewbie »

soganess wrote: post #50
VirusNewbie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Everyone seems to be objecting to the arithmetic error, but what’s more interesting is the underlying assumption: that “Sergey Brin owes $50B” is so morally dispositive that it would end the argument. Brin is not a sympathetic marginal case. He is the standard: founder equity, $1 salary, unrealized appreciation, deferral, and access to liquidity without needing wage income. It is a little strange to look at a very la…

it's not an arithmetic error, it's literally written in the tax bill to value voting ownership shares as a percentage of the company if they are not available on the open market.

Section 50303(c)(3)(C) says "For any interests that confer voting or other direct control rights, the percentage of the business entity owned by the taxpayer shall be presumed to be not less than the taxpayer's percentage of the overall voting or other direct control rights."

Sergey Brin is not 'hoarding' anything. There is not a bank vault of jewels or wheat that the rest of the world is deprived of having. Stock 'wealth' is not a fixed quantity of wealth. To think that divesting people of ownership is egregious and immoral.

You are advocating for laws you do not read, regarding concepts of which you have not read about nor seem to be able to comprehend, and people like that are my enemy.

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#57

Post by [deleted] »

ohNoe5 wrote: post #18
kelseyfrog wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we don't allow them to hold us hostage they will all leave.

Oh no, a couple thousand people, largely engaged in little more than modern conservatism, might leave the rest of us 300+ million alone for a change rather than demand fealty to their personal story and personal autonomy (fealty to which actually distracts us from our own lives); people who do nothing to assure the rest of us have food and shelter and healthcare may take their ball and go home! How tragic. End of the…

[deleted]

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#58

Post by VirusNewbie »

anamax wrote: post #39
ashwindharne wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's calculated based on voting equity, of which Sergey owns significantly more than 230b.

The "tax based on control" clause (quoted below) doesn't apply to public companies.

Yes it does, it applies to any ownership of shares that are not traded on the public exchange. This means the shares the Google founders have, or Zuck, or the owner of SNAP, or any number of large companies founders would have to sell a significant portion.

Re: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom

#59

Post by zippyman55 »

clutter55561 wrote: post #14

That is pretty sad. People would rather spend money on political activism instead of supporting their home state. Imagine if they said instead - no need for tax, here is 15 billion to fund the schools. They could be heroes but choose to be assholes.

That is how I see it!
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