The Wealthometer

[M Paquette]

A federal wealth tax will never happen in the USA under the current constitution and body of case law. While a couple states have had some sort of 'intangible assets' tax, these tend not to survive very long for some reason or other...

[ERhoosier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Paquette A federal wealth tax will never happen in the USA under the current constitution and body of case law.......

That's what many once said about income taxes

[Al in Ohio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERhoosier That's what many once said about income taxes

Many? No not really. This is totally different and will never happen.

[growing_older]

Site prominently displays "None of the data you enter will be stored" yet when I return to the site in a new browser (same machine) it already has my previous entries filled out. So, maybe it's stored only locally on my machine, but it absolutely IS BEING STORED and so now I wonder what else this site is doing or misrepresenting about itself.

[FANOFJESUS]

Number 3 is scary how would you tax wealth I think that is coming one day. Do some other countries already have that? Exemption level 50k yeah that will raise some money.

[photoguy]

I don't understand why they are simply dividing by the number of people in the household to determine your percentile. This seems like the worst possible way of normalizing the data.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rec7 Number 3 is scary how would you tax wealth I think that is coming one day. Do some other countries already have that? Exemption level 50k yeah that will raise some money.

Only a few countries have wealth tax right now. However, I saw an article saying that the IMF was advocating a 10% tax (one time, I think) on all Europeans.

Now, imagine if we put this wealth tax to a popular vote. With 50% of people having less than $24K of net worth, what do you think will happen?

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Only a few countries have wealth tax right now. However, I saw an article saying that the IMF was advocating a 10% tax (one time, I think) on all Europeans. Now, imagine if we put this wealth tax to a popular vote. With 50% of people having less than $24K of net worth, what do you think will happen?

I dunno - seems like I remember money mattering more to me when I had less of it. If I only had $24,000 I sure wouldn't want to give up half of it.

[NW-Bound]

No, the poorest 50% people will vote to exempt that first $24K of net worth. What's above it will be taxed at 50%.

PS. Talk about the IMF current 10% seizure tax proposal, I remember that the EU/IMF seized a big chunk out of bank accounts in Cyprus last year. Unimaginable things have happened before.

[Fishingmn]

Wouldn't they have to tax the value of a pension plan based on expected payout and longevity? Not sure the unions will suddenly be on board.

And what's to stop someone from blowing all their wealth on an annuity so they show no wealth but get the lifetime income stream instead?

[jollystomper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al in Ohio Many? No not really. This is totally different and will never happen.

Never say never... with the politics of "never let a crisis go to waste", all it takes will be some (real or perceived) "crisis" and suddenly folks will fall in line. It is becoming too easy to vote for something that is perceived as only impacting others and not yourself. There is already the growing attitude of "people don't need that much money" and the "income inequality" debate can easily evolve to "wealth inequality".

[dunkelblau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arky Huh !?!

Sorry yeah that looks incoherent, I was trying to describe the high end for the members of this board who follow a different distribution than the population at large:
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ber-64965.html
For 2-person households Richistan breaks down into >1M=10% (millionaires), >5.5M=1% (Penta), >30M=0.1% (UHNWI), >175M=0.01% (wealthy), and >1B=0.001% (billionaires). With a 1M exemption a 0.1% wealth tax would pull in about 20B/yr, 45% from millionaires, 25% from Pentas, and ~10% apiece from the higher groups. No exemption would almost double the take.

[kmt1972]

When I did this I kept our household as 2 as opposed to 1, since DW's assets contributed significantly to our NW. I did not put 3 as our DS is not even 3 yet and not sure it gives me an accurate read.

[kmt1972]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon-nyc I was under the impression that the 1% threshold was more like $5MM.

See

How Much Money Does It Take To Be In The Top 1% of Wealth and Net Worth in the United States

In 2011 it seems to be either $5MM in liquid assets or more like $9MM as per IRS. I suspect in terms of raw NW it is well north of $5MM to be in the top 1% household NW.

[FANOFJESUS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Only a few countries have wealth tax right now. However, I saw an article saying that the IMF was advocating a 10% tax (one time, I think) on all Europeans. Now, imagine if we put this wealth tax to a popular vote. With 50% of people having less than $24K of net worth, what do you think will happen?

That's right with an exemption level of 50k they will be like tax those rich guys. When you have 24k someone with 50k is rich. I think this tax will happen the only question is when. Is it 10 years from now or 20 years from now? I think the same of the VAT tax and carbon tax.

[HFWR]

I'm pretty high up on the list, but unfortunately luckily not in the top 1%...

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmt1972 See How Much Money Does It Take To Be In The Top 1% of Wealth and Net Worth in the United States In 2011 it seems to be either $5MM in liquid assets or more like $9MM as per IRS. I suspect in terms of raw NW it is well north of $5MM to be in the top 1% household NW.

If we think the normal household as a married couple, then that $5M is roughly double the $2.7M per capita in the OP linked Web site.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR I'm pretty high up on the list, but unfortunately luckily not in the top 1%...

Why laughed? I am sure you are in the top 10%. Remember that we only need 51% of the popular vote to pass any law.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 A net worth of 0 puts you at 13%! Twenty five thousand and you're in the top half. So, it speaks more to the unbridled spending by the majority of Americans. Another flaw is that taxing the wealthy will do absolutely nothing to increase the net worth of those at the bottom.

Yes, but they have it coming!!

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishingmn Wouldn't they have to tax the value of a pension plan based on expected payout and longevity? Not sure the unions will suddenly be on board. And what's to stop someone from blowing all their wealth on an annuity so they show no wealth but get the lifetime income stream instead?

Simple, exempt union and government pensions. There is precedent all over the place.

[kmt1972]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Simple, exempt union and government pensions. There is precedent all over the place.

If this were to take place expect a surge in the art market as people shift their wealth into non-traceable, non-liquid, and difficult to value forms of wealth.