3 ms·

A 10% VAT added on top of our ~%10% sales tax? The $1,000 is going to be spent entirely on taxes! The range and domain of taxes being piled on CA residents ha

A 10% VAT added on top of our ~%10% sales tax? The $1,000 is going to be spent entirely on taxes! The range and domain of taxes being piled on CA residents has reached an unimaginable scales. I know many people and companies who have left the State for precisely this reason. Atlas Shrugged.

rconti 7y ago
I don't believe sales tax or income tax rates have changed substantially in the 20 years I've lived in CA. Perhaps 1 percentage point increase in sales tax in that time. The top income tax rate for "normal" folks has been, I believe, 9.3%, although there was an additional 1% tax on incomes over $1M added sometimes in the past few years. A quick search didn't turn up much in the way of useful historical charts, but it sounds like your post is more politics-based than economics-based. I'd welcome better data, I might well be wrong here.
- ericd 7y ago
  IIRC the top income tax rate is 13.3%. I think sales tax is 9% but not sure how much that varies between locales.
  - rconti 7y ago
    Ah yes, this might be the change I was thinking of, in 2013: pre-2013: 9.3% marginal rate from $49k to $500k, then to 10.3% over $500k. post-2013: additional 1 percentage point at the $250-300k, another 1 percentage 300k-1m, and then a 3rd additional 1 percentage point over $1m. So the top rate is 13.3% up from 10.3%; with a tiered increase in the 9.3% rate to 10.3 and 11.3% depending on income. http://www.newhallstudios.com/images-lib/CA-taxes/California_Income_Tax_Rates_2013_01_621x438.gif http://www.newhallstudios.com/images-lib/CA-taxes/California...
    - ericd 7y ago
      Oh interesting, didn't realize it had been bumped like that in 2013.
- robomartin 7y ago
  I’m still my phone, hard to type a detailed response to your fair question. Was this a political post on my part? Well, taxes and politics are too intertwined. I don’t think even I can make that distinction. Taxes in CA have been getting out of hand for a long time. For example, we (LA County) now have a new tax on every square foot of a property that does not allow rain to hit soil. For home owners it’s hundreds of dollars per year. For businesses, thousands to tens of thousands. You pay for your home, driveway, entrance path, patio cover, concrete patio, pool, carport, garage, barn, etc. Home Depot pays for their entire building and parking lot. Just insane. Let’s take another one: I’ve been paying taxes on every gallon of gasoline for road maintenance for over thirty years. Our roads are an absolute disgrace. They slapped on yet more taxes recently to “fix” them. So, they tax everyone for decades, don’t do their jobs, hand out ridiculous pensions and benefits and then ask for more money. This is insane. Political? Well, if it isn’t it means over thirty years of absolute incompetence and possibly even criminal behavior on the part of various agencies. And the solution to both is political. So, yeah, I think you are right, it is.
marcosdumay 7y ago
> The $1,000 is going to be spent entirely on taxes! That's how UBI work. Only poor people pay less than they receive.
- robomartin 7y ago
  In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. What people have to understand is that these programs are self-defeating and incredibly destructive in the long term. They establish a base-level cost structure that is inescapable --short of some kind of a revolutionary movement. Faced with that, businesses and capital get the hell out as soon as they can. They do this because it is FAR easier to move your operations to another State or outsource all you can to China than to fight for decades against an ideology that has effectively pitted the unthinking public (while convincing them they actually think) against the very foundations of how it is we can live as we do: Entrepreneurship, risk taking, commerce and, yes, capitalism, even if imperfect. Just look at what China has been able to accomplish in just 50 years. They did not do that through central planning and UBI. They are far from perfect, but they got the capitalism part mostly right, and it shows.

rconti 7y ago

I don't believe sales tax or income tax rates have changed substantially in the 20 years I've lived in CA. Perhaps 1 percentage point increase in sales tax in that time. The top income tax rate for "normal" folks has been, I believe, 9.3%, although there was an additional 1% tax on incomes over $1M added sometimes in the past few years. A quick search didn't turn up much in the way of useful historical charts, but it sounds like your post is more politics-based than economics-based. I'd welcome better data, I might well be wrong here.

ericd 7y ago
IIRC the top income tax rate is 13.3%. I think sales tax is 9% but not sure how much that varies between locales.
- rconti 7y ago
  Ah yes, this might be the change I was thinking of, in 2013: pre-2013: 9.3% marginal rate from $49k to $500k, then to 10.3% over $500k. post-2013: additional 1 percentage point at the $250-300k, another 1 percentage 300k-1m, and then a 3rd additional 1 percentage point over $1m. So the top rate is 13.3% up from 10.3%; with a tiered increase in the 9.3% rate to 10.3 and 11.3% depending on income. http://www.newhallstudios.com/images-lib/CA-taxes/California_Income_Tax_Rates_2013_01_621x438.gif http://www.newhallstudios.com/images-lib/CA-taxes/California...
  - ericd 7y ago
    Oh interesting, didn't realize it had been bumped like that in 2013.
robomartin 7y ago
I’m still my phone, hard to type a detailed response to your fair question. Was this a political post on my part? Well, taxes and politics are too intertwined. I don’t think even I can make that distinction. Taxes in CA have been getting out of hand for a long time. For example, we (LA County) now have a new tax on every square foot of a property that does not allow rain to hit soil. For home owners it’s hundreds of dollars per year. For businesses, thousands to tens of thousands. You pay for your home, driveway, entrance path, patio cover, concrete patio, pool, carport, garage, barn, etc. Home Depot pays for their entire building and parking lot. Just insane. Let’s take another one: I’ve been paying taxes on every gallon of gasoline for road maintenance for over thirty years. Our roads are an absolute disgrace. They slapped on yet more taxes recently to “fix” them. So, they tax everyone for decades, don’t do their jobs, hand out ridiculous pensions and benefits and then ask for more money. This is insane. Political? Well, if it isn’t it means over thirty years of absolute incompetence and possibly even criminal behavior on the part of various agencies. And the solution to both is political. So, yeah, I think you are right, it is.

marcosdumay 7y ago

> The $1,000 is going to be spent entirely on taxes! That's how UBI work. Only poor people pay less than they receive.

robomartin 7y ago
In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. What people have to understand is that these programs are self-defeating and incredibly destructive in the long term. They establish a base-level cost structure that is inescapable --short of some kind of a revolutionary movement. Faced with that, businesses and capital get the hell out as soon as they can. They do this because it is FAR easier to move your operations to another State or outsource all you can to China than to fight for decades against an ideology that has effectively pitted the unthinking public (while convincing them they actually think) against the very foundations of how it is we can live as we do: Entrepreneurship, risk taking, commerce and, yes, capitalism, even if imperfect. Just look at what China has been able to accomplish in just 50 years. They did not do that through central planning and UBI. They are far from perfect, but they got the capitalism part mostly right, and it shows.