solstice

Calm down professor. The US is one of the only countries in the world to tax worldwide income, even if they are a nonresident of the US. That is NOT how it works in every country.

Here's a pretty good article about it from the WSJ if you want to educate yourself on the subject: https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-34630

It's somewhat accurate to say "every penny they make is taxABLE to Uncle Sam" which is different from saying 100% tax rate. Americans living outside the US still need to file a tax return and report all their income, and pay tax on it to the US, even if it is from a foreign source. That said they could claim the foreign tax credit if they paid tax to a foreign regime on that income already, or the foreign income exclusion under some circumstances which would reduce their taxable income to the US.

Well thank god we don't have any Death Panels from Obamacare though!

No, all you're doing is shifting power from the big bad mean rich landlord into the hands of the government agency or agent in charge. How do you not understand that? No matter what there's going to be an asshole with too much power/wealth.

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.

Are you a bot? Wealth tax is not the same as income tax. You can't compare 24% to 4%. It just doesn't work that way. I don't know how to be more clear.

Suppose you take one of your remaining dollars after paying 24% tax on your gross income. You buy a penny stock and it skyrockets to the moon and you are now worth 100 billion on paper, and you stay at your 100k/yr white collar desk job. Your only income is your 100k salary. You haven't actually earned any income yet or triggered any taxable events. Income happens when you sell, not when values fluctuate. Your fair share is 24,000 now and then capital gains tax whenever you sell your share of that stock. This wealth tax is absurd because it's literally just a timing difference between now and whenever you sell, or whenever you die, whichever happens first. That tax is going to get paid one way or another.

You guys are getting your panties all twisted up over a temporary timing difference. And the worst part is you just don't even know what you're talking about, or how chaotic it would be implementing such a thing, which would never work in practice, or even the fact that it's unconstitutional and would require an amendment to be legal. This whole thing is just idiotic.

That's actually a really good point I hadn't even thought of. Is there even enough actual currency in circulation to pay the tax people are talking about, or is it all locked up in hypothetical future income priced in to the current FMV? Great post.

People will always act in their own rational self interest. Idk where people get this idea from that you can legislate market forces. It's like legislating the tides or the seasons. The commies around here walking around bitching about all these mean rich people are so naive it's really incredible.

This is a super basic apples and oranges concept, please try and keep up.

Your original comment was bitching about 4% not being a fair share when you are paying 24%. Wealth tax is not the same as income tax.

I think everyone is subject to income tax in the US when the income is taxable to them, yes. Eventually all of these big bad mean rich people will pay tax on their unrealized gains one way or another. No need to create a wealth tax because eventually the income tax will kick in, I promise you. There's no need to fuck with the tax code even more, and by doing so totally breaking accounting and tax concepts in a way that only government can, just out of this populist notion that they aren't paying their fair share, whatever that means.

If you're talking about eminent domain, the gov has to pay fair market value for the assets it takes, at least in the USA. So you're just flat out wrong using that as an example because in this context you guys are talking about the government forcing someone to provide something to somebody else for free, or just seizing their property (!) to do it themselves.

I'm looking for you to be able to articulate a specific rule or set of rules with hard numbers and thresholds that applies to literally everyone. You can walk around all you want saying rich people are big bad meanies and should give this poor woman free housing. But it turns out people will always act in their own rational self interest, and until you can figure out a way to codify your values into law, you might as well be writing letters to santa. I wish everything were perfect and nobody wants for anything, but the universe just doesn't work that way. It's hard to believe there are so many people naive enough to not know this by now.

I'm definitely in the wrong place because all I'm hearing is a bunch of morons.

the government should control the property and not charge rent. It’s not that hard to understand

Yes it is hard to understand because we are having this conversation despite it being a ridiculous idea. If the gov controls the property and doesn't charge rent, it doesn't lower the cost. The value of that property doesn't go away. It just changes hands from the private owner into the gov agency (or worse, agent) who controls who gets to live there. Imagine a neighborhood where everything costs $10k/month to live there, but you control who gets to live in that one place that costs $1,000/month. Think of how powerful a position that is. The value of that rental property didn't magically disappear just because the government waived its magic wand and said so. Economics doesn't work that way, and it's really frustrating talking to people who don't get this. You can't solve these issues by decree.

My post was in response to someone bitching about borrowing against property with unrealized gains to avoid tax, try and keep up.