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Comment on How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?

let “unrealized gains” be taxed if they were ever used as collateral for a loan.

This simply makes no sense as a concept. Collateral is something that you tell the one you’re borrowing from “you can have this if I fail to pay my loan back”. If the loan is repaid, literally nothing happens to the collateral, and it plays zero part in the actual transaction. There is zero non-arbitrary reason to tax an asset just because it was used as collateral.

Also, all home equity loans would fall under this definition, as well.

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jpreston2005@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The problem lies in the top 1% using their shares of a company as their personal bank account. They can use these shares as collateral for a loan, bypassing all income tax. If accountant can figure out how a billionaire can avoid paying taxes on the entirety of their massive yearly income, then others can figure out how to tax it properly. If you’re income is more than 70% this weird untaxable thing, then congrats, we gon’ tax it now.

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- damnedfurry@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  The problem lies in the top 1% using their shares of a company as their personal bank account.
  
  There is no problem in someone using their own assets for their own benefit.
  
  They can use these shares as collateral for a loan, bypassing all income tax.
  
  There’s no income tax to “bypass”, because a loan isn’t income. You have to pay it back. Do you consider it “bypassing all income tax” when a homeowner takes out a Home Equity Loan too?
  
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  - jpreston2005@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    you just really love the taste of boots, huh?
    
    how dare you suggest we tax billionaires! Don’t you know they’re better than the rest of us? You can’t tax them because that’s not fair to the god-like status I have bestowed upon them! their money is special and shouldn’t be touched, they ripped off their workers and dodged taxes fair and square!
    
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    damnedfurry@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    
    I dryly state of couple of plain facts, along with an analogy to clarify why using your own assets as collateral for a loan doesn’t make sense to be interpreted as ‘bypassing income tax’
    
    You accuse me of being a bootlicker and put a ton of words in my mouth, assuming all sorts of nonsense about my values/positions because you apparently can’t handle the actual words you were presented with, and need a straw man to focus on instead
    
    Why pretend you have any interest in genuine discourse when you act like this? It’s extremely obvious you have no desire to actually communicate. Go write a blog somewhere with the comments disabled if you can’t handle contradiction.
    
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