Let's not pretend it's definitive. You can find experts who say it wouldn't be constitutional and I can experts who say it would.
Ok we’re having a fight over a word “definitive”. Bottom line is the income tax set a precedent for needing a new amendment because it was not deemed consistent with apportionment and there is no way in hell the current supreme Ct, even with one more liberal judge, would say a wealth tax is constitutional. It would likely be at least 6-3. But sure, it’s not definitive.
Well, here's a novel idea ..... from the liberal, progressive, democrat world: Ex-MSNBC host, podcasters agree Black people shouldn't have to pay taxes: 'We have never had any reparations' "Former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross, political advocate Angela Rye and former Democrat politician Andrew Gillum entertained the idea that Black people should be exempt from taxes as reparations on the "Native Land Podcast" Monday. The three discussed actor Terrence Howard reportedly claiming it is "immoral for the United States government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves" while being ordered to pay $903,115 in back taxes, penalties and interest. While they recognized the unrealistic possibility of such a policy, Cross claimed that "this brother was making a legitimate point." She said, "We have never been paid. We have never had any reparations. We’ve never seen the benefits." Then we have Howard himself on record .... Actor Terrence Howard ordered to pay almost $1M in back taxes after saying ‘immoral’ to tax slave descendants | Fox News "Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it," the actor allegedly said in the voicemail. "Now you have the gall to try and prosecute and charge taxes to the descendants of a broken people that you are responsible for causing the breakage." Howard went on further, slamming the government for taking him to court. "In truth, the entire United States should, by default, become the property of the descendants of slaves," Howard said. "But since you do not have the ability [or] the courage to do it, let’s try this in court… We’re gonna bring you down."
The IRS has recovered $1.3 billion from rich American tax dodgers since the fall of 2023 — relieving a painful burden from ‘ordinary citizens’ (msn.com) But if collecting funds from wealthy tax dodgers fits the bill, then the IRS shared welcome news in early September. The agency announced that it had recovered $1.3 billion from high-income, high-wealth individuals under initiative included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The gains, the tax agency reports stem from the failure of rich Americans to catch up on their returns dating back to 2017. But efforts kicked into high gear in February, when the IRS found itself in a much better position to pursue those who fall into the tax brackets of between $400,000 and $1 million, or more than $1 million in annual income. It involved some detective work, too, as the IRS received third-party information — much of it through W-2s and 1099s — that indicated a gulf between what rich people made and what they paid. Result: a billion-plus dollars recovered from the nearly 80% of the 1,600 millionaires with delinquent tax debt. That includes $100 million since July, the IRS stated.
It isn’t just the collection, it’s the deference factor. At a minimum, these folks will pay the next few years so that’s another billion probably, but as word gets out so will others that haven’t been, and for some their lawyers are calling the IRS right now to make a preemptive mea culpa deal.
I put a fair amount of my non-retirement money in a mutual fund. It seems to do fairly well with no effort on my part. The advantages a mutual fund has over a typical individual investor include a team of people looking at all the financial data and the market trends, and the ability of the head investor to call the CEO of a company and have a discussion on where the company is going. And risk is distributed among dozens and dozens of stocks. Finding a good mutual fund is a bit difficult. When I started, I had $20k, and I put $5k in four funds. Two were duds, and I was able to get out most of what I put into them. A third was o.k., and I left money in there for a decade or so. The fourth was really good, and has probably averaged 10-11% returns, so I kept putting more money into that one. I can't recommend it to anyone because they stopped taking on new investors (happens when a fund gets too big).