this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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According to a summary of the bill released by the Patriotic Millionaires—an advocacy group that helped craft the measure—the wealth tax would have four brackets:

  • 2% for all wealth between 1,000 and 10,000 times median household wealth;
  • 4% for all wealth between 10,000 and 100,000 times median household wealth;
  • 6% for all wealth between 100,000 and 1,000,000 times median household wealth; and
  • 8% for all wealth over 1,000,000 times median household wealth;

"In the unlikely event median household wealth fell below $50,000 from its current level of about $120,000, the thresholds would be fixed at $50 million, $500 million, $5 billion, and $50 billion respectively.”

The legislation would also require at least a 30% IRS audit rate on households affected by the new wealth tax.

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[–] [email protected] 141 points 1 year ago (4 children)

This plan is so very soft on the billionaires and yet we are going to see it being resisted violently and with extreme prejudice.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 year ago (1 children)

By temporarily embarrassed millionaires, no less.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even most of the extremely rich aren't effected by this, if you calculate it out you need over 31,000,000 dollars before the lowest bracket kicks in.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Uh my house will totally be worth that much so I hate this!

/S

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure thats the point.

Showing that the billionaires will react to practically nothing like it will destroy them. And hopefully maybe a few more people will realize they're full of shit

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Keep in mind it's a wealth tax, not an income tax, so these numbers hit way harder than the income tax ones you're used to.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It hits the same as property tax hits, because property tax is also a form of wealth tax.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Yes, percent should be about 10x what has been recommended.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

For everyone saying this is not harsh enough, it is a WEALTH tax. Not income, wealth. All owned assets. Meaning any of these people who don't increase their net worth by at least the amount of the tax each year will lose more and more of their total wealth year over year.

It isn't intended to strip all mega rich people of all their stuff immediately - that obviously could never pass - but still is intended to open the door to wealth taxes and redistributive policies more broadly.

It's a great move. If we can get anything like this passed, it is a significant victory.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just getting something like this out of committee and on the floor for debate would be huge. Unfortunately it stands no chance with the current congress

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In other news, renting a house has never been more popular! On secondary news, rent has raised across america by 8% unilaterally

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you describing right now or making a prediction I can't tell

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think it is more the state of American media. Similarly to before 08 housing crash, many home builders got stuck with over valued houses no one would buy. So they rented them out so that it would generate income and not have to take a write down. If you watch CNBC it tells you how the housing market is somehow doing amazing if you look at perfectly curated numbers that do not add up. One of the common media pieces at the moment is how popular this new rental home trend is and how its so helpful and gracious to those who can’t afford homes. Example: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/14/homes/build-for-rent-homes/index.html

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's got a snowballs chance in hell of going anywhere, but it's nigh time a wealth tax entered the realm of possibility

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, we have a better chance of pigs flying, getting struck by lightning, and winning the lottery all at the same time on the same day simultaneously than this has of actually passing both chambers and getting signed into an actual law. This type of thing will never pass when the very oligarchs it seeks to tax own the very government responsible for making it a law.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Eight whole percent. I can hear their boots shaking now /s

Go with the Bernie plan. Anything over $1B is taxed at 100%. Shit, I think even that is too soft. Nobody needs even a fraction of that to for themselves and their children's children's children's ... to live like kings their entire lives.

Also, it's always hilarious how American politicians are so obsessed with overly on-the-nose acronyms for legislation.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a travesty. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of the brows of everyone he's screwed over to amass his fortune? Sure, I might not have two cents to rub together between paychecks but I'd better oppose this just in case I get rich some day.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Isn't the issue that they are currently hiding and obfuscating their income? Increasing the percentage is a great idea and all but 1% or 8% of zero is still zero.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It literally says "all wealth" and doesn't talk about income at all.

This is exactly the kind of tax we need. I think its a very interesting idea to tie it to median wealth, though using household as opposed to individual wealth I'm not sold on.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The legislation would also require at least a 30% IRS audit rate on households affected by the new wealth tax, according to the summary.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

That's it? The highest one is 8%? Wtf is this, a joke? No one needs billions of dollars. No one should hoard billions while others sleep in the streets. Hell, billionaires shouldn't exist at all.

Edit: also where is the "assets" and stocks tax?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

8% seems fine considering it's a wealth tax, not an income tax. In 7 years that takes away 56% of their wealth.

Granted, I'm not at all clear on what sort of assets constitute "wealth" here. How much of Musk's $242.4 billion net worth that google currently spits out would be affected by this?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not like their wealth is not increasing. Fuck them, I wish I could tax them 90% after their first billion. No one needs one thousand million dollars. Holy shit! It's a lot of money they'll never ever spend. Also, I'd tax everything they own, even their stocks and other "assets" they use to avade taxes.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

8% is a good figure. 8% gets real change and it gets it fast. This rhetoric helps nothing. Wealth taxes are very different from income taxes.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s so soft and yet there is still 0% chance of this going anywhere. That’s where we are smh.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yup. I've literally given up hope on this government. At this point, I'm just waiting for a total collapse of this country. It will happen, but I don't know when.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sounds like where I'm at. The Paranoia Agent OP just keeps getting louder and louder in my head with every passing year.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Paranoia Agent...now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why the fuck do I pay like 30% percent on my income? Fuck the IRS. Go after every single last billionaire tax dodger or stop taxing in general.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Wealth taxes are much different than income taxes, and as such have a lower percentage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I actually agree with you. There should not be tax on labor. I'm already helping society with my labor, why would you double down on me?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Wealth taxes are super easy to avoid, so I'd much rather see something like cap gains+"luxury" sales/income taxes and such, but it's a step in the right direction

Now raise taxes on everyone making over 100k and we're really cooking with gas

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (5 children)

$100k aint that much and those people already have a heafty tax burden. Plus luxury taxes are easily avoided when yachts and planes are purchased in the Bahamas. What we need are 50% taxes on the money they borrow against their assets. Want to buy another mansion? Cool 50% tax on the money Goldman Sachs lends you against your Amazon stock. If I have to pay a tax to borrow against my 401k so should these assholes.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (5 children)

But income tax on paper is already higher for the $100k tax bracket than what the ultra rich pay. The ultra rich do everything in their power to not have an "income". Hence why there's this effort of taxing wealth instead.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Good thing the people who have to vote on it aren't impacted by these brackets at all!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

"Veto" isn't the correct term, but you are otherwise entirely correct.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

My understanding is that this would be x% of your total wealth, which is much more reasonable.

So you would pay an extra 2% of your total worth every year. So at a billion that's 20 million, at 980 million 19 million and change, etc.

The numbers could be much higher, but this is a lot of funds. It also would take several generations for the inheritance to drop below "you'll never spend this" to just "you can live on the interest". Even with zero interest on their investments (which is absurd - so really this would more be a source of funds than anything). At least it would be a starting point

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can someone ELI5 with examples? Is this based on income?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Based on wealth. Like the tax we pay on houses but on total wealth. Stocks etc too.

But only for very wealthy people. It starts at 1000 times median wealth. So people 1,000 times richer than the median household.

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