capital gains and dividends taxes are taxes on investment income of the owners. The corporate income tax is also a tax investment income. This is part of the reason capital gains taxes are lower, because business return on capital is taxed twice.
I half expected a response like this and am aware of the defense and used to agree with it, but not anymore. Its not consistent with reality and it favors higher income folks. If I put my after tax $$ in a money market account I'm taxed at regular rates not cap gains rates, hence taxed twice. If I use my after tax $$ to buy rental property, that rental income is also taxed at regular rates, etc etc.
And any billionaire that ever discusses it has their wealth protected from it in a trust. They are just pulling the envy strings so people will thing they are altruistic on the subject. Reality is if they thought the government was a good investment. They would give it more money. But they know the waste…
My response was factually correct. Return on capital is taxed on both the corporate net income level and then again on the cap gains and dividends. As to your money market example, interest expense is tax deductible to a company. So yes you are taxed as ordinary income, but the company gets a deduction. Dividends and capital gains are not deductible to the company, so it kind of makes sense they are taxed at a lower rate to the individual.
It is really hard to discuss taxes with the envy crowd. Not only do the “rich” pay the vast majority of income taxes but also the vast majority of other taxes. The poor are not paying the property taxes the rich pay. The poor are not paying the sales taxes the rich pay. The rich just pay the most taxes and it is not close. They always want use the Ponzi scheme of SS/Medicare to whine about the rich (which the rich still pay the most of as well).
Yep. I still think I was targeted little over a decade ago. The morons at the irs sent me a bill for almost $20K. After over a year they told my accountant to just not pay it and let it go to the judge. Never got there as the attorney representing the irs must have got the info and said what in the world are you doing. $0 balance. It was all the bank and cdc did not send a 1098 so my accountant had interest on the wrong line. Should have been a fax and move on. Instead I had to pay my accountant for work over a year because of some idiot at the irs who had no understanding of the tax code. Or was targeting…
The rich own the vast majority of the wealth in the US so of course they should be paying the vast majority of the taxes. But they're not even paying as high a tax rate (based on their wealth) as most of the rest of us are. The top 1% (in wealth) own about 30% of the wealth in the US. But the top 1% (in income, which would be mostly the same group as the top 1% in wealth) pay about 25% of the total taxes in the US. So in terms of wealth, the top 1% is paying a lower rate than the rest of the country is.
Billionaires definitely have income. Yeah, adequately funding the IRS would make it easier for them to catch the tax cheats, lower the number of errors, and make it easier for you to resolve an error if they make one. And yet...
So we couldn’t just not tax the first hundred thousand of capital gains. The real place ai will impact is on collecting taxes from everyone.
Warren Buffet one of the ten richest people in the world pays a lesser percentage of taxes than his secretary does. He supports taxing the rich more.
I disagree. You’d need very sophisticated IRS agents to review these returns. Truly wealthy people don’t hold their assets in traditional structures. They will have limited partnerships, passive minority investments, art, yachts, planes etc. All owned in structures that their ownership interest will be difficult to ascertain. Every year you’d be forced to audit every return. It’s just not feasible.
I guess that possible if you just dart board some index funds, or bought CD’s. you still would be wise to do some research regarding the management fees etc.
Ha has always been welcome to pay more on is own. If I recall correctly BH was fighting the IrS regarding some returns years ago. Seems like they would just pay more if they reallly felt they were under taxed and not fight the IrS
So simplify the tax code so these vehicles no longer exist. I know it will never happen in part because the guys and gals who write the laws use the same system to avoid paying taxes…