Wealthy Taxpayers Could Take a Hit in These 8 States

[USGrant1962]

One member was very explicit about suggesting wealth confiscation.

But only for people who have more money than he/she does

 

[Koolau]

Elected officials (and wannabes) talk up a storm and propose lots of things, the vast majority of which never see the light of day. This is nothing different.

It's true that many (most) of these "tax the rich" ideas and bills are never enacted. My point is that when slogans like "tax the rich" become bills (even with relatively low likelihood of passage) SOME people really want the idea to become law. Sooner or later, some form of "tax the rich" IS enacted - and guess what, WE are the rich here on the Forum. We have enough to be worth taxing but not so rich as to be able to avoid the taxes.

Try long enough and often enough and even bad ideas become law. We all know examples but refrain from mentioning them to avoid political discussion.

 

[Chuckanut]

One thing that the extremely wealthy seem to forget is why they are wealthy.
They either inherited a lot of money or made it through some type of business.
They do not get their money without all the common folk buying and using their products and services.

Those common folk are the reason they are wealthy because without them buying and using the products and services they would not be wealthy.

Yea it is great you came up with the idea or invented the product, but your wealth in reality is not you by yourself.

Even the extremely overpaid high tech workers who make ridiculous salaries and then make a killing investing owe it to the teachers and people who educated them and to the masses who use the services like google for example.

A close relative of mine just got hired by a huge Tech company. The company actually has a fleet of buses that go out through the Bay Area and provides free rides to work.

I am thrilled for him but it is hard to ignore some less fortunate other parent who has to take public transportation to a mediocre paying difficult job.

The irony is he has his new job and big salary because the other less fortunate parent just saved enough to buy her kids an iPad.

I’m not going to argue, other than to point out I believe large scale prosperity is a feedback loop. We need people with big money to invest it and take chances on ideas that improve quality of life for all of us. The investors rich and otherwise need us to make and be able to afford to buy, the stuff that is produced.

Automating a factory is a great way to increase productivity. Machines don’t take vacations, breaks, and get overtime pay. They also don’t buy cars, toasters, phones, clothing, got to ball games, etc.

 

[oiseux]

I was wondering if the poster advocating for compulsory forfeiture of property had wandered into the wrong forum, or followed the wrong a link from Reddit.

Here's another view of income taxes that shows that the top 10% paid 73.7% of all income taxes collected in 2020, and the lower 50% of filers 2.3% of the total collected.
https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/

This analysis excludes FICA and Medicare tax. Unlike some other analysis analysis, it does not consider benefits not currently subject to taxation as income nor unrecognized gains. And of course, what you don't see are items excluded from AGI. The data was a bit more distorted than the prior year due to COVID.

 

[marko]

I’m not going to argue, other than to point out I believe large scale prosperity is a feedback loop. We need people with big money to invest it and take chances on ideas that improve quality of life for all of us. The investors rich and otherwise need us to make and be able to afford to buy, the stuff that is produced.
.

IIRC, Congress passed a (short lived) high yacht tax a few decades ago. (Might have been a sales tax)

All it did was have the thousands of people who built the boats lose their jobs. Meanwhile, boat building went to Europe and Asia.

 

[luckydude]

I think I'm in the wrong place. Can someone direct me to the forum with the Financially Independent people? You know: people who like making money, want to retire early, talk about being wealthy, investing, how to spend it and such?

I think the FI people are all in hiding because there are folks with torches and pitchforks threatening to confiscate their stuff

 

[SunGuy]

What a concept. Who would have ever thought a Forum with the name "Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community" would ever think, talk, care about having a nice stash of money (investments, actually)?

I fully support and have been a part of the community as a whole since 2005 when I started investing with my first job.

I want everyone to be healthy, wealthy, and happy for themselves, their families, and support and enrich their local communities.

Many of my relatives are millionaires, and our family has had them for generations on each side to varying degrees. Their money stays within each of their families, which is fine.

My parents were not as work obsessed, but have a very comfortable retirement, and can maintain their standard of living indefinitely.

I don't expect to receive anything from them as an inheritance, I am aggressively investing to provide for myself, I live pretty frugal, and most months can invest around 50% of my take home pay.

I mean, I work at Fidelity, and deal with HNW and UHNW people as a part of my job. I just want to see more taxes on them and businesses, and less loopholes to avoid paying their fair share.

Inheritance laws are a big example, with step up rules as they stand, they can avoid a huge amount of taxes as just one example.

IRS, SEC etc. need to be able to stop the rampant financial crimes that plague the world financial markets.

The deregulations that were allowed to happen, Reg SHO abuse, cellar boxing, short ladder attacks, and more have been exploited by Market Makers like Citadel, and dark pools etc.

Other problems are also a factor, corruption in politics, insider trading, even politicians being able to trade stocks in general, corporate lobbying, super PACs, not tracking campaign finance money and contributions.

 

[marko]

I mean, I work at Fidelity, and deal with HNW and UHNW people as a part of my job. I just want to see more taxes on them and businesses, and less loopholes to avoid paying their fair share.
.

Might be best to not let Abigail see this. Especially your advocating for a wealth cap.

What we used to call a "career limiting move".

 

[Alan]

Thanks for the interesting discussion.