4 ms·

> Wealthy individuals who make most of their income on capital gains rather than wages would then pay the same as the rest of us. I remember during the 2012 pre

> Wealthy individuals who make most of their income on capital gains rather than wages would then pay the same as the rest of us. I remember during the 2012 presidential election, when Mitt Romney finally released his tax returns, he paid less than 50% of my family's tax rate, on 100 times our income. How does that make any sense? It's not an entirely accurate/honest picture. Romney's tax rate is lower because the income from his capital gains has already been taxed as corporate profits (well, assuming no tax evasion). I.e. the double taxation you mentioned affects him too, but it's not contained in his tax rate.

beat 10y ago
Are you sure? What rate did those corporations pay? Remember, the article that triggered this is about how difficult it is to collect corporate taxes, how little revenue they really generate, and how they lead to tax-sheltering overseas. I think it's fair to say that Romney's effective tax rate, including the corporate taxes, do not rival the taxes my wife and I paid as middle class wage earners. And even if they did, what's wrong with my solution? It would be fair, and visibly fair, without the whiff of "Oh, you're just ignorant" to the naysayers.
- lazyjones 10y ago
  > what's wrong with my solution? It would be fair, and visibly fair, without the whiff of "Oh, you're just ignorant" to the naysayers. Absolutely nothing is wrong with your solution, it's fair and probably increases tax income for the country. It would only work if corporate taxes were abolished, though.
  - beat 10y ago
    Yeah. Those two things should go hand in hand. Alas, the left will react with revulsion at killing corporate income tax, and the right will react with revulsion at raising capital gains. Sigh.
coredog64 10y ago
His rate was so low because, IIRC, he had a boatload of equities that he knew were going to be worth a lot more in the future and he parked them in a Roth IRA. Not exactly a strategy open to your everyman even if we can all open our own Roth IRAs.
- beat 10y ago
  That was only one of his strategies. The real problem was capital gains.
clairity 10y ago
"double taxation" is not an entirely accurate/honest term. corporations are "persons" and we tax money flowing to people. it's taxed just like everyone else. what's odd is that it has a different, and largely preferential, tax treatment relative to other persons.
- kemiller 10y ago
  It's perfectly accurate and honest from any normal practical point of view. If I run my freelancing business through a C corp I have to pay corp taxes and dividend taxes or capital gains. It's taxed twice, and at a higher level in aggregate (assuming I'm making more than 75k) than if I'm just a sole proprietor. That's exactly why LLCs and S Corps exist, of course, and there are other ways around it, but it's still the case that the exact same amount of underlying economic activity happens, but one case is taxed more than the other.

beat 10y ago

Are you sure? What rate did those corporations pay? Remember, the article that triggered this is about how difficult it is to collect corporate taxes, how little revenue they really generate, and how they lead to tax-sheltering overseas. I think it's fair to say that Romney's effective tax rate, including the corporate taxes, do not rival the taxes my wife and I paid as middle class wage earners. And even if they did, what's wrong with my solution? It would be fair, and visibly fair, without the whiff of "Oh, you're just ignorant" to the naysayers.

lazyjones 10y ago
> what's wrong with my solution? It would be fair, and visibly fair, without the whiff of "Oh, you're just ignorant" to the naysayers. Absolutely nothing is wrong with your solution, it's fair and probably increases tax income for the country. It would only work if corporate taxes were abolished, though.
- beat 10y ago
  Yeah. Those two things should go hand in hand. Alas, the left will react with revulsion at killing corporate income tax, and the right will react with revulsion at raising capital gains. Sigh.

coredog64 10y ago

His rate was so low because, IIRC, he had a boatload of equities that he knew were going to be worth a lot more in the future and he parked them in a Roth IRA. Not exactly a strategy open to your everyman even if we can all open our own Roth IRAs.

beat 10y ago
That was only one of his strategies. The real problem was capital gains.

clairity 10y ago

"double taxation" is not an entirely accurate/honest term. corporations are "persons" and we tax money flowing to people. it's taxed just like everyone else. what's odd is that it has a different, and largely preferential, tax treatment relative to other persons.

kemiller 10y ago
It's perfectly accurate and honest from any normal practical point of view. If I run my freelancing business through a C corp I have to pay corp taxes and dividend taxes or capital gains. It's taxed twice, and at a higher level in aggregate (assuming I'm making more than 75k) than if I'm just a sole proprietor. That's exactly why LLCs and S Corps exist, of course, and there are other ways around it, but it's still the case that the exact same amount of underlying economic activity happens, but one case is taxed more than the other.