wealth tax

[alarmclock]

just curious if anyone is willing to share ideas about wealth taxation.

In 2005, federal personal income receipts were ~927B$, total personal income was ~10200B$ and total personal wealth was ~45000B$ (for citations, please visit http://www.google.com :-).

Some simple math reveals that a 2% federal wealth tax would yield the same federal receipts, eliminating income tax. You might take a moment to compute 2% of your (assets-liabilities) vs 10% or 20% or 30% of your income.

There are a lot of problems with a wealth tax, and I don’t have soultions for these: year-to-year wealth variation is much greater than year-to-year income variation; the wealthiest would easily set up legal vehicles to hide wealth that would be unavailable to the less wealthy; there is no political will to make such a change; wealth is easier to fabricate than income; and so on…

My point for posting is that in the big scheme of taxation
* tax of assets (wealth tax/property tax)
* tax of income
* tax of usage (sales tax/highway tolls)
a wealth tax seems to be the fairest tax, usage taxes are the least fair, with income taxes occupying a middle ground — this is of course based on my definition of fair.

As a young professional with good income but few assets, this regime would dramatically lower my current taxes — essentially my tax burden would be shifted from my younger years to my older years.

This would tend to shift tax burden generationally as well. Grandparents sitting on a paid-off house and other assets assume a larger share of the tax burden from their adult children.

This would also concentrate the tax burden further. The wealthiest 10% will assume more of the tax burden, increasing from 70% to something much higher (95% or 99% ?? I haven’t computed this).

The half-life of a 2% wealth tax is 34 years. This means that if you start with $1B of wealth & no income, you have $500M in 34 years, $250M in 68 years, $125M in 136 years, etc.

As an aside, in my youth I strongly believed that a usage tax was the fairest tax; I have come around to understanding that it is in fact the least fair tax. If this is not clear to you then I can offer a contrived example — suppose that a dollar per liter sales/consumption/usage tax is imposed on the use of oxygen (breathing). Instead of seeing it as a “the more you use, the more you pay” = fair tax, consider that we each use a comparable amount of oxygen. So the hypothetical oxygen tax would consume a substantial portion of a poor person’s wealth, while it would consume an almost insignificant portion of a rich person’s wealth.

[Bugs]

Except that you can exempt certain items – like air, milk, bread, eggs, etc – from being taxed at all. We already have certain forms of taxation that are based on “excess consumption”.

You can hide how much you make and you can hide what you own, but it’s tough to hide what you consume.

[Bugs]

Except that you can exempt certain items – like air, milk, bread, eggs, etc – from being taxed at all. We already have certain forms of taxation that are based on “excess consumption”.

You can hide how much you make and you can hide what you own, but it’s tough to hide what you consume.

[Bugs]

Except that you can exempt certain items – like air, milk, bread, eggs, etc – from being taxed at all. We already have certain forms of taxation that are based on “excess consumption”.

You can hide how much you make and you can hide what you own, but it’s tough to hide what you consume.

[Bugs]

Except that you can exempt certain items – like air, milk, bread, eggs, etc – from being taxed at all. We already have certain forms of taxation that are based on “excess consumption”.

You can hide how much you make and you can hide what you own, but it’s tough to hide what you consume.

[Bugs]

Except that you can exempt certain items – like air, milk, bread, eggs, etc – from being taxed at all. We already have certain forms of taxation that are based on “excess consumption”.

You can hide how much you make and you can hide what you own, but it’s tough to hide what you consume.

[Coronita]

You're only saying this because you are young with no assets. As soon as you start accumlating assets, your opinion would be drastically different.

People who accumulate wealth should have the means of keeping it. They earned it (most at least).

American's biggest problem is over-consumption. suggesting something as ridiculous as an asset wealth tax would just additionally punish the few that take the time and discipline to accumulate wealth.

I don't see where you think that a consumption tax (usage tax) is unfair. For example, why should someone that drives a Hummer that consumes more gas, who's operation on roads probably contribute more to wearing out the roads, who occupy more parking spaces, *not* have to pay more for the additional use of resources than someone who drives an econ box toyota corolla??????

I surely hope democrats don't even think about talking about a wealth tax. It would be so appropriate for the party to do so, to feed into the fat, consumptive nature of the rest of the nation.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

You're only saying this because you are young with no assets. As soon as you start accumlating assets, your opinion would be drastically different.

People who accumulate wealth should have the means of keeping it. They earned it (most at least).

American's biggest problem is over-consumption. suggesting something as ridiculous as an asset wealth tax would just additionally punish the few that take the time and discipline to accumulate wealth.

I don't see where you think that a consumption tax (usage tax) is unfair. For example, why should someone that drives a Hummer that consumes more gas, who's operation on roads probably contribute more to wearing out the roads, who occupy more parking spaces, *not* have to pay more for the additional use of resources than someone who drives an econ box toyota corolla??????

I surely hope democrats don't even think about talking about a wealth tax. It would be so appropriate for the party to do so, to feed into the fat, consumptive nature of the rest of the nation.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

You're only saying this because you are young with no assets. As soon as you start accumlating assets, your opinion would be drastically different.

People who accumulate wealth should have the means of keeping it. They earned it (most at least).

American's biggest problem is over-consumption. suggesting something as ridiculous as an asset wealth tax would just additionally punish the few that take the time and discipline to accumulate wealth.

I don't see where you think that a consumption tax (usage tax) is unfair. For example, why should someone that drives a Hummer that consumes more gas, who's operation on roads probably contribute more to wearing out the roads, who occupy more parking spaces, *not* have to pay more for the additional use of resources than someone who drives an econ box toyota corolla??????

I surely hope democrats don't even think about talking about a wealth tax. It would be so appropriate for the party to do so, to feed into the fat, consumptive nature of the rest of the nation.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

You're only saying this because you are young with no assets. As soon as you start accumlating assets, your opinion would be drastically different.

People who accumulate wealth should have the means of keeping it. They earned it (most at least).

American's biggest problem is over-consumption. suggesting something as ridiculous as an asset wealth tax would just additionally punish the few that take the time and discipline to accumulate wealth.

I don't see where you think that a consumption tax (usage tax) is unfair. For example, why should someone that drives a Hummer that consumes more gas, who's operation on roads probably contribute more to wearing out the roads, who occupy more parking spaces, *not* have to pay more for the additional use of resources than someone who drives an econ box toyota corolla??????

I surely hope democrats don't even think about talking about a wealth tax. It would be so appropriate for the party to do so, to feed into the fat, consumptive nature of the rest of the nation.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

You're only saying this because you are young with no assets. As soon as you start accumlating assets, your opinion would be drastically different.

People who accumulate wealth should have the means of keeping it. They earned it (most at least).

American's biggest problem is over-consumption. suggesting something as ridiculous as an asset wealth tax would just additionally punish the few that take the time and discipline to accumulate wealth.

I don't see where you think that a consumption tax (usage tax) is unfair. For example, why should someone that drives a Hummer that consumes more gas, who's operation on roads probably contribute more to wearing out the roads, who occupy more parking spaces, *not* have to pay more for the additional use of resources than someone who drives an econ box toyota corolla??????

I surely hope democrats don't even think about talking about a wealth tax. It would be so appropriate for the party to do so, to feed into the fat, consumptive nature of the rest of the nation.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[surveyor]

Alarmclock:

Instead of daydreaming about changing the tax code to fit your personal situation, maybe you should think about studying the tax code and using it (as it is currently structured) to make you wealthy.

Lots of people want the tax code to change, but it simply isn’t going to happen (if it does change, I guarantee that you will find that it has become even worse). What most people don’t realize though is that EVERYONE has the capacity to minimize their taxes using the current tax code. It does take a little work, it does take a little study, but isn’t that the exact way to get wealthy?

It isn’t brain surgery – lots of people have used the current system to get ahead and be wealthy and the first thing they did was to look at the advantages of the current situation instead of sitting around complaining that the current system is unfair or trying to find a way to shift the tax burden to someone else.

[surveyor]

Alarmclock:

Instead of daydreaming about changing the tax code to fit your personal situation, maybe you should think about studying the tax code and using it (as it is currently structured) to make you wealthy.

Lots of people want the tax code to change, but it simply isn’t going to happen (if it does change, I guarantee that you will find that it has become even worse). What most people don’t realize though is that EVERYONE has the capacity to minimize their taxes using the current tax code. It does take a little work, it does take a little study, but isn’t that the exact way to get wealthy?

It isn’t brain surgery – lots of people have used the current system to get ahead and be wealthy and the first thing they did was to look at the advantages of the current situation instead of sitting around complaining that the current system is unfair or trying to find a way to shift the tax burden to someone else.

[surveyor]

Alarmclock:

Instead of daydreaming about changing the tax code to fit your personal situation, maybe you should think about studying the tax code and using it (as it is currently structured) to make you wealthy.

Lots of people want the tax code to change, but it simply isn’t going to happen (if it does change, I guarantee that you will find that it has become even worse). What most people don’t realize though is that EVERYONE has the capacity to minimize their taxes using the current tax code. It does take a little work, it does take a little study, but isn’t that the exact way to get wealthy?

It isn’t brain surgery – lots of people have used the current system to get ahead and be wealthy and the first thing they did was to look at the advantages of the current situation instead of sitting around complaining that the current system is unfair or trying to find a way to shift the tax burden to someone else.

[surveyor]

Alarmclock:

Instead of daydreaming about changing the tax code to fit your personal situation, maybe you should think about studying the tax code and using it (as it is currently structured) to make you wealthy.

Lots of people want the tax code to change, but it simply isn’t going to happen (if it does change, I guarantee that you will find that it has become even worse). What most people don’t realize though is that EVERYONE has the capacity to minimize their taxes using the current tax code. It does take a little work, it does take a little study, but isn’t that the exact way to get wealthy?

It isn’t brain surgery – lots of people have used the current system to get ahead and be wealthy and the first thing they did was to look at the advantages of the current situation instead of sitting around complaining that the current system is unfair or trying to find a way to shift the tax burden to someone else.

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