A fair tax rate

[Spongebob]

Part of the difficulty with getting the rich to pay their fair share is that they are often compensated in ways that don’t qualify as ‘income’. A ‘wealth tax’ wouldn’t be the worst idea.

Boru

Unless you are a wealthy person with no income - then it is the WORST of ideas - and quite unfair.

I think a wealth tax is generally based on your net worth instead of income.  It's something that was used in the past but has not been seriously considered for some time.  Of course, once again, the wealthy go to great effort to hide much of their wealth, so it mostly renders this approach as pointless.  It's astonishing that most of us toil away for a comfortable living while a small percentage of people get so wealthy that they can pay to have their actual net worth hidden.

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Same here...

But I' d hate to get taxed into poverty....

Think about this -


If a wealth tax was a one time deal - that would be fine.


But to tax a person' s wealth EVERY YEAR?

How would you like to be taxed on your income every year for every year you had income?


It' s the same thing - compounding tax upon tax....


Doesn' t sound fair to me.

A lot of people view property tax this way.  You buy a property once, but pay taxes on it every year.  And if you sell it and make a profit, you pay tax on the profit.  That's a lot of tax.

What no one has mentioned on this thread is the idea of eliminating all forms of income tax and going to all sales tax.  This has been proposed but hasn't gotten anywhere.  I don't really have a solid opinion on the matter.  In some ways it seems more fair but I also see the potential for loop holes just like we have now.