General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTax Wealth Not Just Work
It takes money to make money.
Wage workers get taxed. Asset owners pay far less.
This isn't right.
brooklynite
(93,880 posts)No objection to taxiing interest/dividends/capital grains at higher rates, but wealth is also a matter of lifestyle choices (not having children, investing rather than spending, etc.)
Elizabeth Warren campaigned on a wealth tax; it didnt get her the nomination.
DanieRains
(4,619 posts)And if one of the 40 bad things don't happen to hard working Suze Orman types they can become well off.
Extreme wealth (and power) is hardly taxed.
aquamarina
(1,865 posts)themaguffin
(3,805 posts)Klaralven
(7,510 posts)To address the "double taxation" objection (profits being taxed at the corporate level and then to the stockholder), do away with corporate income taxes, but also require that all corporate profits be paid out each year as dividends.
Corporations thus would not be able to "retain earnings" in order to increase capital, but they would have to either sell new stock, sell bonds, or get loans. This would give stock investors more say in which companies grow and which shrink. It would make the stock market more of a legitimate vehicle for funding business and less of a mere casino.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,112 posts)mopinko
(69,811 posts)there are too many ways to disguise taxable income as something else. you cant hide wages, but you sure can shuffle shit around. all of them quite unproductive.
GregariousGroundhog
(7,498 posts)REITs do not pay tax as long as they pay out 90% of their earnings as dividends. I'd have no qualms about offering all corporations the ability to do that in exchange for treating capital gains and dividends as ordinary income.