Comment on Here are the massive tax increases coming your way in a second Biden term

• GrymEdm@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Here’s an Oxfam report on wealth inequality. Some excerpts:

  • “Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, paid a “true tax rate” of about 3 percent between 2014 and 2018. Aber Christine, a flour vendor in Uganda, makes $80 a month and pays a tax rate of 40 percent.”
  • “Worldwide, only four cents in every tax dollar now comes from taxes on wealth. Half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants. They will pass on a $5 trillion tax-free treasure chest to their heirs, more than the GDP of Africa, which will drive a future generation of aristocratic elites. Rich people’s income is mostly unearned, derived from returns on their assets, yet it is taxed on average at 18 percent, just over half as much as the average top tax rate on wages and salaries.”
  • “During the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, $26 trillion (63 percent) of all new wealth was captured by the richest 1 percent, while $16 trillion (37 percent) went to the rest of the world put together. A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent.”

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  • wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Let’s focus on one as that’s easier.

    Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, paid a “true tax rate” of about 3 percent between 2014 and 2018. Aber Christine, a flour vendor in Uganda, makes $80 a month and pays a tax rate of 40 percent.”

    This is false. It’s easy to prove it false. It’s well documented.

    Between 2014 and 2018, Musk paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion of income,

    cnbc.com/…/elon-musk-says-he-will-pay-over-11-bil…

    So how did they come up with 3?

    Technically most of that wasn’t “income”. It’s capital gains. His salary is normally a dollar.

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    • GrymEdm@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Here’s another story about the 11-billion tax claim. What you story leaves out is: “The emphasis on Musk’s income comes amid speculation of his past tax filings. In June, a ProPublica investigation found that while Musk’s wealth had grown by nearly $14 billion from 2014 to 2018, he paid $68,000 in federal income tax in 2015, $65,000 in 2017 and none in 2018. Between 2014 and 2018, the investigation found, he had a true tax rate of 3.27%.”

      Here’s the ProPublica investigation based on IRS documents. “We compared how much in taxes the 25 richest Americans paid each year to how much Forbes estimated their wealth grew in that same time period…According to Forbes, those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That’s a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%.”

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      • wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Ignore the 11 billion part. That’s for a different time period. Your quote was from 2014-2018.

        You don’t pay taxes on wealth. So your citation doesn’t understand tax law. Wealth can’t be taxed by the federal government because it’s unconstitutional. Basically they are idiots.

        We pay taxes on income and the rate changes on the type of income. Wealth isn’t income.

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• fartington@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I am fairly wealthy. I earn in the top in the top 5%. I’m in the top 1% for wealth While I’m not rich in your eyes, i am in the eyes of most people.

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    • fartington@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      [deleted]

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      • wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        How do you define rich?

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