Steve Jobs notoriously took an annual salary of $1 despite being worth billions. Many of them do the same thing to avoid taxation.
Comment on How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?
SolidShake@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s called an income bracket. We already have them in place.
K1nsey6@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
One of the big arguments is to tax wealth, not just income.
SolidShake@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So. If I make 50,000 dollars a year but only need 40,000 to live. And I save that 10,000 a year for 20 years. You want to tax me on that $200,000 I saved? Lol wtf
4am@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
No, but if you own $4billion in stocks and you borrow against it to live off of then you’ve realized that value and you get taxed heavily on it.
The idea is to get them to stop doing the “unlimited money glitch” of doing this.
SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
Most of the current plans for wealth taxes start in the region of $5-$50 million, taxing wealth above that bracket (like other progressive taxes). Do you expect to save $5 million, let alone $50 million?
Most of the seriously proposed tax rates are also in the 1-3% range, maybe 5% on the very high end. Again, of wealth above that threshold.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Wealth taxes in Switzerland start at ~150k and include the family residence. And capital doesn’t flee. It’s a great implementation and income taxes are lower commensurately so that it works for people.
blarghly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how an individual’s wealth can be useful to society. Societies become prosperous when they do things that are good for people, and that is what the money is best spent on - making society better. Sure, if they go to the bar every night and spend $200k getting hammered, maybe we netted a little extra tax revenue. And the bar is certainly doing better. But it is far better for everyone if that money becomes the startup capital for, say, a new plumbing business or taco restaurant or law firm or real estate development. Put it into something that actually does something
And that’s essentially what buying stocks is. Putting your money in stocks is good for the economy.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Yes, but you’ll only pay like a thousand a year on those savings, and your costs will go down to 30,000 thanks to improved infrastructure, healthcare, etc.
SolidShake@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s insanely stupid. You already pay taxes from your income and you pay taxes spending money. No ken should ever be taxed on money they have saved. Ever.