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How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

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71–80 of 305 posts

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#71
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

This isn't a loophole as much as a completely designed tax break.

That's a different deal than some body squeaking around tax law; this was all about trying to change parts of the nature of capitalism's tendency to rerun money to capital more than to labor.

If you think it's misguided, I do too. Though I think it's good to invest in under invested areas, I also think we need to counteract the effects of the Henry George Theorem and also redistribute money from the land rents to people that do not own land.

Both are necessary to try to make our economic system more fair and more efficient. The fewer people that are allocating capital in capitalism, the worse it works. And pretty much all positive defenses of capitalism start with assumptions that most people are starting from somewhat similar places of wealth, or at least enough wealth that they are not destitute. Until we have that base level of security for all, we need things like massive redistribution, which includes carrots like opportunity zones, as well as sticks like taxes on land and monopolies.

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#72
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

This is HN. we welcome diversity of views. this view you espouse, is not actually a minority view, but still, its a divisive topic.

I'm a high tax kinda guy. If we all had Norway taxes, we'd have Norway sovereign fund and EV and lifestyle (but maybe without SAD, because we're not all that far north)

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#73
post #6

Is this really what people strive for in the USA. To avoid contributing anything back to the country that helped them achieve everything they've ever wanted?

The government is not a charity. If they have deemed something to be non-taxable, it's because the government (and by extension, the people it represents) want to incentivize that particular activity, in this case investing in economically depressed areas. If at some point we no longer want to incentivize that behavior, the government can simply remove the tax break. Moralizing about how people shouldn't engage in th…

It's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I do business, he is cheating, they are corrupt.

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#74
post #6

Is this really what people strive for in the USA. To avoid contributing anything back to the country that helped them achieve everything they've ever wanted?

The government is not a charity. If they have deemed something to be non-taxable, it's because the government (and by extension, the people it represents) want to incentivize that particular activity, in this case investing in economically depressed areas. If at some point we no longer want to incentivize that behavior, the government can simply remove the tax break. Moralizing about how people shouldn't engage in th…

The US government is the worlds largest charity, it also does a lot of other things. However it accepts donations and supports the poor, arts and sciences etc.

There are even plenty of things people might want to donate too that only governments do, the Red Cross etc are hardly building space telescopes or US highways.

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#75
post #72
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

This is HN. we welcome diversity of views. this view you espouse, is not actually a minority view, but still, its a divisive topic. I'm a high tax kinda guy. If we all had Norway taxes, we'd have Norway sovereign fund and EV and lifestyle (but maybe without SAD, because we're not all that far north)

Norway oil is way more relevant for your thesis than Norway taxes

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#76
post #70
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

I was going to say that this article should be titled “how to steal from society”, so I’ll join you in downvote-city, comrade.

"How to take money from society whose elected representative set up a specific program to hand out"

Which I also refuse to take, myself, but for different reasons than refusing to steal.

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#77
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

This isn't a loophole as much as a completely designed tax break. That's a different deal than some body squeaking around tax law; this was all about trying to change parts of the nature of capitalism's tendency to rerun money to capital more than to labor. If you think it's misguided, I do too. Though I think it's good to invest in under invested areas, I also think we need to counteract the effects of the Henry Geo…

Capitalism these days feels akin to joining a game of monopoly where everything has already been purchased. But feel free to have a jolly time going around the board and paying rent :)

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#78
post #40
post #38

Sounds interesting. Is there a TLDR for this?

I think this article is the TLDR.

That's the core problem with OZs: you'd have to spend days jumping through hoops to qualify. For me, even though I could save quite a few bucks, life's too short.

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#79
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

Infrastructure is just a sliver of the fed budget. Education is funded by property taxes, also a sliver. "History" and "societal background" has absolutely not been "paid for by taxes".

If every working American contributed $8,000 in taxes we would have the same revenue as the insanely progressive system we have now. I don't think anyone here would advocate for zero taxes. I think they would simply advocate for less taxes.

Re: How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax

#80
post #68

Unfashionable thought: pay your damn taxes. Loopholes are one thing and IMO should be closed but morality is another. The whole idea that you can make a billion dollar business without being hugely dependent on the infrastructure, education, history, societal background etc that has largely been paid for by...taxes...is utter fallacy. Maybe if massively profitable businesses spent a bit more time doing the right thin…

businesses yes. But governments abuse public spending - at least in the UK a significant chunk gets funnelled to conservative friends and family...why should I therefore want to fund that?
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