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> And not just that, but typical property taxes provide a disincentive to even improve your own property, since you'll pay more tax. They encourage blight. A g

> And not just that, but typical property taxes provide a disincentive to even improve your own property, since you'll pay more tax. They encourage blight. A good old wealth tax on everything would fix that.

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
Not really. If a wealth tax is implemented, you'll be amazed at how soon everyone moves their wealth outside of the US. You'd be very hard pressed to tax wealth outside the US. Distributing the tax across property, a progressive capital gains tax, a progressive corporate tax, and a small wealth tax is a much better option than a flat and high wealth tax.
- alasdair_ 7y ago
  >Not really. If a wealth tax is implemented, you'll be amazed at how soon everyone moves their wealth outside of the US. You'd be very hard pressed to tax wealth outside the US. Taxing income outside the USA already happens. Taxing wealth would also happen. There has been a huge push in the last decade to tighten up "anti-money laundering" (but usually anti-tax) laws. The cliche of the swiss bank account offering secrecy for Americans no longer exists - the Swiss now report holdings directly to the US and similar locales do likewise.
briandear 7y ago
Most OECD countries have dropped wealth taxes. They don’t work. In 1990, 12 OECD countries had wealth taxes, now, only 4. A wealth tax has a lot of unintended consequences and while it sounds good as a populist sound bite, reality isn’t so simplistic.
- pjc50 7y ago
  Do you have a history of this - was it just that the ownership was moved offshore? Did they "not work" or was it just lobbied against?
- sokoloff 7y ago
  I see that list of 4 (Switzerland, Spain, France, and Norway), yet I know that the Netherlands is in OECD and also has a wealth tax: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Netherlands#Wealth_tax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Netherlands#...
- coldtea 7y ago
  Did they dropped them because they "don't work" or because the wealthy lobbied against them?

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago

Not really. If a wealth tax is implemented, you'll be amazed at how soon everyone moves their wealth outside of the US. You'd be very hard pressed to tax wealth outside the US. Distributing the tax across property, a progressive capital gains tax, a progressive corporate tax, and a small wealth tax is a much better option than a flat and high wealth tax.

alasdair_ 7y ago
>Not really. If a wealth tax is implemented, you'll be amazed at how soon everyone moves their wealth outside of the US. You'd be very hard pressed to tax wealth outside the US. Taxing income outside the USA already happens. Taxing wealth would also happen. There has been a huge push in the last decade to tighten up "anti-money laundering" (but usually anti-tax) laws. The cliche of the swiss bank account offering secrecy for Americans no longer exists - the Swiss now report holdings directly to the US and similar locales do likewise.

briandear 7y ago

Most OECD countries have dropped wealth taxes. They don’t work. In 1990, 12 OECD countries had wealth taxes, now, only 4. A wealth tax has a lot of unintended consequences and while it sounds good as a populist sound bite, reality isn’t so simplistic.

pjc50 7y ago
Do you have a history of this - was it just that the ownership was moved offshore? Did they "not work" or was it just lobbied against?
sokoloff 7y ago
I see that list of 4 (Switzerland, Spain, France, and Norway), yet I know that the Netherlands is in OECD and also has a wealth tax: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Netherlands#Wealth_tax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Netherlands#...
coldtea 7y ago
Did they dropped them because they "don't work" or because the wealthy lobbied against them?