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Instead of taxing individual wealth, far easier and constitutionally sound to impose a corporate tax as a percentage of total stock value. Let the markets dete
by blacksqr 7y ago
Instead of taxing individual wealth, far easier and constitutionally sound to impose a corporate tax as a percentage of total stock value.
Let the markets determine the value of the stock, then calculating the tax is a few minutes' work.
Most people who get really rich do so by owning stock or shares in a corporation, partnership or LLC.
- organsnyder 7y agoWhat about privately-held stocks?
- Chirael 7y agoSounds like it would be a big incentive for companies to stay private as long as possible.
- krajzeg 7y agoWhile not a viable way to actually do things, it is fun to imagine crazy unicorns like WeWork being taxed on their outrageous valuations.
- blacksqr 7y agoMany privately-held companies sell stock, and their value can thus be calculated. For those that do no stock trades, a gross income tax would be a simple alternative.
- organsnyder 7y agoSeems like a strategy could emerge to do private sales at well below estimated value, in order to game this system. You could make it illegal, but it would be incredibly hard to prove (and harder still to detect).
- blacksqr 7y agoSeems like such a strategy would already be illegal as a means of avoiding capital gains taxes. It would also have the side-effect of destroying the company's valuation and thus its credit rating.
- mdorazio 7y agoInteresting proposal, but LLCs do not always have shares of stock in the normal way. Trusts, which are another common vehicle of the wealthy, would also be immune from this. You would get a pretty good take from the richest ~10% of people, though [1]. [1] http://money.com/money/5054009/stock-ownership-10-percent-richest/ http://money.com/money/5054009/stock-ownership-10-percent-ri...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- blacksqr 7y agoLLCs have membership shares, and large LLCs and partnerships generally have well-defined buy-in and cash-out values.