• lauha@lemmy.one
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    2 months ago

    You think they have paid the tax when they acquired the wealth, i.e. when it was income?

    • solstice@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This is a super basic apples and oranges concept, please try and keep up.

      Your original comment was bitching about 4% not being a fair share when you are paying 24%. Wealth tax is not the same as income tax.

      I think everyone is subject to income tax in the US when the income is taxable to them, yes. Eventually all of these big bad mean rich people will pay tax on their unrealized gains one way or another. No need to create a wealth tax because eventually the income tax will kick in, I promise you. There’s no need to fuck with the tax code even more, and by doing so totally breaking accounting and tax concepts in a way that only government can, just out of this populist notion that they aren’t paying their fair share, whatever that means.

      • lauha@lemmy.one
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        2 months ago

        Wealth tax is not income tax but it is certainly still not a fair share when I’m paying 24% of all my income and they are paying 4% tax overall.

        • solstice@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Are you a bot? Wealth tax is not the same as income tax. You can’t compare 24% to 4%. It just doesn’t work that way. I don’t know how to be more clear.

          Suppose you take one of your remaining dollars after paying 24% tax on your gross income. You buy a penny stock and it skyrockets to the moon and you are now worth 100 billion on paper, and you stay at your 100k/yr white collar desk job. Your only income is your 100k salary. You haven’t actually earned any income yet or triggered any taxable events. Income happens when you sell, not when values fluctuate. Your fair share is 24,000 now and then capital gains tax whenever you sell your share of that stock. This wealth tax is absurd because it’s literally just a timing difference between now and whenever you sell, or whenever you die, whichever happens first. That tax is going to get paid one way or another.

          You guys are getting your panties all twisted up over a temporary timing difference. And the worst part is you just don’t even know what you’re talking about, or how chaotic it would be implementing such a thing, which would never work in practice, or even the fact that it’s unconstitutional and would require an amendment to be legal. This whole thing is just idiotic.