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Tax individual wealth and remove income taxes for corporations. Not capital gains, but wealth as in Switzerland or The Netherlands. Income taxes for corporation

by vasco 6y ago

Tax individual wealth and remove income taxes for corporations. Not capital gains, but wealth as in Switzerland or The Netherlands. Income taxes for corporations all disappear when the corporation reaches a given size after which the state only captures capital gains taxes from shareholders and employment and other taxes. The only companies that end up paying income tax are the small ones. So just tax wealth of individuals and remove all the shenanigans in between.

xg15 6y ago
> Income taxes for corporations all disappear when the corporation reaches a given size Could you explain why this is the case? > So just tax wealth of individuals Individuals can play the same games. Jeff Bezos could move most of his wealth into funds, foundations or companies and be poor on paper while still keeping the de-facto control of all assets. Or they could shift their wealth overseas, into tax havens or into less transparent areas like crypto.
- hellbannedguy 6y ago
  If we could close most loopholes taxing the wealth of the individuals might work. I’m talking all loopholes, even giving money to a 501c3. Billy’s nonprofit gives back less than 1% to the country that coddled him. Plus—I feel a lot of nonprofits are just tax dodges. Want to manufacture overseas? Fine, but move to that country, and don’t come back. I got carried away again. I would like to basically see tax loopholes closed, or only allowed the first few years of a business life.
- hedshodd 6y ago
  >> Income taxes for corporations all disappear when the corporation reaches a given size > Could you explain why this is the case? Just to comment on this real quick, this has multiple reasons. Basically, the larger your company is, the more funds you have to spend on lawyers and experts, as well as offshoring. Also, depending on the country you're in and the specific tax laws, it might be easier to fulfill incentives for nullifying the corporate tax (IIRC reinvesting and creating jobs is how Amazon nullifies a good chunk of their taxes, right?). That is not to say, we should completely axe corporate tax imo, because some of those incentives are really good. You want corporations in your country to reinvest and create jobs, because that's overall a really good thing for the job market. The thing about Bezos' wealth is that a huge chunk (maybe even the majority) of it is already in the form of assets. That's not as easily moved overseas (though to my limited understanding it isn't impossible) without hurting his own company, and at that point it might be profitable to just pay a wealth or asset tax or something like that. Obviously that would need to be designed REALLY well, but there's a good chance that that's how we can tax exactly what we want to tax, without hurting small businesses and without hurting the lower class.
csomar 6y ago
I guess one of the major realization to be made that this is mostly a real-estate problem and taxing wealth is not going to help. Most of the wealth held by wealthy individuals is just on paper. If you put a high tax on wealth, most of this value is going to be erased overnight. The problem is real-estate as this is what people need. If people could buy property they would not be interested in stocks or crypto and they would not care for rich people getting richer. They would be busy in their pools or backyards. And fixing real-estate is not done by having more taxes, penalizing vacant homes, or grabbing your inheritance. It's simple: Build more housing.

by vasco 6y ago

xg15 6y ago

> Income taxes for corporations all disappear when the corporation reaches a given size Could you explain why this is the case? > So just tax wealth of individuals Individuals can play the same games. Jeff Bezos could move most of his wealth into funds, foundations or companies and be poor on paper while still keeping the de-facto control of all assets. Or they could shift their wealth overseas, into tax havens or into less transparent areas like crypto.

hellbannedguy 6y ago
If we could close most loopholes taxing the wealth of the individuals might work. I’m talking all loopholes, even giving money to a 501c3. Billy’s nonprofit gives back less than 1% to the country that coddled him. Plus—I feel a lot of nonprofits are just tax dodges. Want to manufacture overseas? Fine, but move to that country, and don’t come back. I got carried away again. I would like to basically see tax loopholes closed, or only allowed the first few years of a business life.
hedshodd 6y ago
>> Income taxes for corporations all disappear when the corporation reaches a given size > Could you explain why this is the case? Just to comment on this real quick, this has multiple reasons. Basically, the larger your company is, the more funds you have to spend on lawyers and experts, as well as offshoring. Also, depending on the country you're in and the specific tax laws, it might be easier to fulfill incentives for nullifying the corporate tax (IIRC reinvesting and creating jobs is how Amazon nullifies a good chunk of their taxes, right?). That is not to say, we should completely axe corporate tax imo, because some of those incentives are really good. You want corporations in your country to reinvest and create jobs, because that's overall a really good thing for the job market. The thing about Bezos' wealth is that a huge chunk (maybe even the majority) of it is already in the form of assets. That's not as easily moved overseas (though to my limited understanding it isn't impossible) without hurting his own company, and at that point it might be profitable to just pay a wealth or asset tax or something like that. Obviously that would need to be designed REALLY well, but there's a good chance that that's how we can tax exactly what we want to tax, without hurting small businesses and without hurting the lower class.

csomar 6y ago

I guess one of the major realization to be made that this is mostly a real-estate problem and taxing wealth is not going to help. Most of the wealth held by wealthy individuals is just on paper. If you put a high tax on wealth, most of this value is going to be erased overnight. The problem is real-estate as this is what people need. If people could buy property they would not be interested in stocks or crypto and they would not care for rich people getting richer. They would be busy in their pools or backyards. And fixing real-estate is not done by having more taxes, penalizing vacant homes, or grabbing your inheritance. It's simple: Build more housing.