A fair tax rate

[Spongebob]

Ok. I'll go along.

When you start paying tax on your bank accounts.


It' s the same thing.

And you get to still pay income tax.

It' s exactly the same.


Thinking of it - you already HAVE a wealth tax.

If you are wealthy - with no income - you have to pay taxes on your INTEREST the bank pays you if you accrue enough.

Want fair?


EVERYONE needs to start paying. Got a $5000 nest egg? Did you make $30 off of it? Give the tax man half.


You wealthy prick - you.....

If only it were so straight forward.  But be careful to not exaggerate what capital gains tax is.  It's a tax on the gains only, not the principle.  So you are taxed a percentage of the amount earned only.  And when you have great wealth, that can be a large part of your actual income.  You buy a building in New York for $100 million and sell it ten years later for $150 million.  So that $50M is taxable and it can represent millions of dollars in taxes.  Of course these guys find ways to hide that, too.

But this is not a wealth tax; this is just a standard tax that anyone is liable to pay.  Even if you own a $10,000 CD, you will pay taxes on the interest earned if you live on a middle class income.

[onlinebiker]

You are trying to compare apples and oranges..

A wealth tax on someone with no income - that is assessed each year --- would be exactly the same as the government taking part of your SAVINGS each year - not the interest on your savings.

Of course they are entitled to part of the interest as well....

[Spongebob]

You are trying to compare apples and oranges..

A wealth tax on someone with no income - that is assessed each year --- would be exactly the same as the government taking part of your SAVINGS each year - not the interest on your savings.

Of course they are entitled to part of the interest as well....

Yeah, I see the problem and on the surface it doesn't appear to be exactly fair.  But if we're talking about the very rich, this wealth had to come from somewhere; it didn't just appear and the fact that they do obscure both their income and their net worth is also unfair to those of us who pay our share of tax.  I don't expect this to get any real traction anyway.

[tackattack]

As long as the system taxes you for what you have, not what you do with it, there will always be haves and have nots and it will always be unfair. If there's just a problem axing the poor man then make it a buy-in system. You have to have spent or made >200k this year then you have to pay taxes. I guess for it it boils down to what are the purpose for taxes and where should they come from, and I'm still a little fuzzy on how I feel about that.

[arewethereyet]

I think we should close the loopholes and see where we stand then. Things might be okay if those legal dodges were eliminated.

Oh, and tax the churches.

[Spongebob]

As long as the system taxes you for what you have, not what you do with it, there will always be haves and have nots and it will always be unfair. If there's just a problem axing the poor man then make it a buy-in system. You have to have spent or made >200k this year then you have to pay taxes. I guess for it it boils down to what are the purpose for taxes and where should they come from, and I'm still a little fuzzy on how I feel about that.

From a traditional view of taxes, they are intended to pay for all of the things that a civilization needs to thrive that is not privately owned.  And you can forget getting the extremely rich to pay their "fair share".  When you can spend millions of dollars on lawyers to save tens or hundreds of millions, it's no contest.  

However, there is a pretty "advanced" economic concept out there called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) that throws almost everything you know about economics on its head.  In this view taxes are nothing more than a way to control inflation.  I invite others to read about this if you haven't already.  I'm not endorsing it; just pointing it out for conversation.

[tackattack]

I think gov't would be satisfied with 3% from everyone if everyone couldn't hide their wealth. I agree 100% with @arewethereyet that we have to start with closing the loopholes and adding transparency, with any resolution. That is the clearest abuse of wealth and class providing unfair advantage, IMO.

[Fireball]

Well, the definition of an honest politician is one who stays bought, to paraphrase Heinlein re: honest cops. The wealthy spent a lot of money on those politicians (who know which side of their bread the butter is on) to get those tax breaks.