I thought we should bring some attention to this.

  • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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    30 days ago

    The double tax argument is dumb because the money you’ve put in is not taxed, thus the capital gain.

    So there is no double tax because only the portion that wasn’t taxed is.

    • AliasAKA@lemmy.world
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      30 days ago

      Well they’d argue that the money they put in is taxed, presumably because it was income and subject to income tax. So any income used to assess tax, they’d argue is taxed.

      I’d just argue any income (including from capital gains) should be taxed according to your wealth. I don’t care if it has already been assessed for tax. If it’s income, and you already have excessive wealth, you should be paying a hefty tax. The point of taxes is redistribution of wealth and communal improvement (eg infrastructure) so I really don’t care if something is taxed once twice or more times, I care that wealth is taxed and used for public good.

      • Capital gains taxes are only levied against the profit earned from investment, not the gross value returned to the stakeholder.

        If someone buys a stock for $100, then later sells it for $150, only $50 is taxed. So the money that was “already taxed” by income taxes isn’t being double taxed at all, regardless of the rate of the capital gains tax.

        Unless, of course, you count the fact that it was taxed as income by the person who gave it to you, in which case all money has been taxed numerous times before and the argument is that taxes in general are bad.

        • AliasAKA@lemmy.world
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          29 days ago

          Yeah, I think in general people come up with veiled reasons for lower taxes but fundamentally it’s just because they don’t want to pay taxes at all.

          I like taxes. I like having roads (though I want more public transportation), I like having firefighters and public parks and protected green spaces and…

      • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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        29 days ago

        I agree with you. I would rather see the money back in the community instead of making rich people richer.

        At one point in the US history, the highest marginal tax rate was 90%. It makes sense. If you don’t want to get taxed, just recirculate the money.

        But at one point, the rich captured the politicians and different state machines and lowered their tax, created a bunch of loopholes, and just fucked everyone over.

        So I’m for a wealth tax. And one fucking thing that should change is that a cash loan backed by assets should be taxed as income.