I'm not positive this works out, but:
- Banks tend to be well-established, identifiable entities.
- They are highly regulated and audited.
The question I'm not certain of the answer is what the result of such a tax would be. I suspect such loans would tend to be crowded out or inerest rates increased (raising costs to the billionaire utilising this cash-out option).
This seems to me along the lines of an HFT transaction tax, possibly operating similarly.
Alternatively, tax consumption over a certain threshold as though spending is income. Effectively instate a federal sales tax after one has spent $X dollars.
Although violence can resolve a situation, negotiation with only the threat of violence gets much better results.
The only “loophole” is inheritance with a stepped up basis, which every American gets.
I’d be happy to get rid of that rule. No need for inheritance taxes, just make the estate pay all capital gains up death.
I'm curious how I should rationalize that this is not in fact a giant loophole for billionaires. Bezos' wealth increased immensely such that he is now one of the richest people in the world, and yet his effective tax rate is far lower than anything you or I will ever see. If he needs "income", he can simply take out a low interest loan with his stock as collateral to pay for whatever he needs (yachts, spurious lawsuits against NASA, etc.). His stock is effectively cash, loans effectively "realize" his gains, and yet we don't treat any of it as income.
There's a vast difference between the unrealized gains of not-filthy-rich people with 401ks / middling stock portfolios and the unrealized gains of filthy rich people who primarily take stock as income (which they do for the exact purpose of paying lower taxes).
[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2021/06/08/richest-...
.98% sounds like he paid just under 1 billion on 4.22 billion of reported income (or just under 25%). I guess it sucks to be Bezos, because he spent more in one year on taxes than I'll have to pay in my life.. I'm going to go out on a limb and suspect that figure is not AGI, but total income. I suspect he had many deductible expenses like donations to charity, though 25% isn't that low since the top marginal bracket for capital gains is 20%.
I guess I'm curious how he paid so much in taxes...
Sale of stock should be taxed at each states tax rate, because it’s the buying and selling of a good, it’s not capital investment.
It's not the rich that arent paying their fair share here.