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Temporarily embarrassed millionaires pt. 2 (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 10 months ago by brbposting to c/[email protected]

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[–] abraxas 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes because there’s no chance that this would end up having to be paid by every homeowner whose house has gone up in value since they bought it

A chance? Sure. But it would require willful malicious writing of the bill. Many (most?) states have homestead protections for homeowners up to a certain conservative value. That protection could pivot to capital gains trivially. I think it's perfectly reasonable to tax valuation skyrockets in excess of (say) $500,000. The government can depreciate those value skyrockets, and we'd still honestly be paying less than our due since property value skyrockets cause property tax decreases (in most (all) municipalities, property taxes are just the town's expenses divided by property value).

while rich people would just find another loophole to avoid it,

In real state, that "loophole" is a law that exists in most states specifically saying you don't have to pay tax on property gain if you follow a specified process to reinvest into property in the same calendar year. But it's not a loophole if it's the damn law. The only way people are dodging real estate taxes now is because they wrote laws to. A law that says "fuck off, you still have to pay" would absolutely work.

while the government would piss all that extra money away on wasteful spending without addressing any actual problems

Across the world, tax rates are largely proportional to health, happiness, and quality of life of the citizens. I prefer to trust the numbers over someone's distrust of the country they live in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A chance? Sure. But it would require willful malicious writing of the bill.

Have you been keeping track of politics AT ALL? You're if fool if you don't EXPECT precisely that to happen. The vast majority of politicians will foam at the mouth at the prospect of passing another tax and then happily add a few provisions to make sure their top donors aren't hurt too much by it. Or do you think it's just a tragic accident that the majority of taxes keeps getting paid by the poor and middle classes?

Across the world, tax rates are largely proportional to health, happiness, and quality of life of the citizens

I don't have any data to prove or disprove that claim, but assuming it's true, then there's certainly better ways to achieve that, like increasing income tax rates on the wealthy. Yes sure, they'll try to avoid it by deferring or offsetting gains where they can, but in the end, whatever they own, they'll still have to convert a certain amount of it to cash in order to spend it, and that can be taxed. No need for such harebrained schemes as taxing unrealized gains.

[–] abraxas 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Have you been keeping track of politics AT ALL? You’re if fool if you don’t EXPECT precisely that to happen.

I largely disagree. I don't wear a tinfoil hat, sorry. I have seen successful execution of homestead related profit protections, and there are very few "gotchas" in it, if any, for non-millionaires.

I'm an American, so blame my patriotism. But I like to think if EVERY other country can do it, we're not so pathetic as a country that we cannot.

like increasing income tax rates on the wealthy

There's a ceiling on the revenue potential in that. The wealthier you get, the less your income is "income". The wealthy don't even try to "avoid" it, it's just not relevant to them. Bezos wasn't lying that year he only made $80k in income. His unrealized capital gains simply were not taxable unless he chose to sell off lots of Amazon stock (which has non-tax-related repurcussions for him).