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Extremely disappointed to see Propublica (typically a place of important journalism) resort to clickbait headlines and disingenuous charts like this. Here’s th
by pembrook 5y ago
Extremely disappointed to see Propublica (typically a place of important journalism) resort to clickbait headlines and disingenuous charts like this.
Here’s the TL;DR of main reason why Bezos, Musk, etc don’t pay taxes:
Unrealized capital gains.
This is not some evil nefarious “tax avoidance” scheme. When you create a business, and the entire world starts wanting to buy your products, and the business becomes extremely valuable (sometimes temporarily since the market is arguably in bubble territory)...AND you don’t sell any of that ownership stake, no, you obviously don’t have to pay taxes on that theoretical increase in wealth.
You haven’t sold, thus the gains aren’t even real. Tesla stock could drop by 90% next week and so would Musk’s wealth.
The fact that propublica is including unrealized gains in these charts completely undermines the reputation they once had for me.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jon-wood 5y agoAs they point out in the article though, its possible for them to take out very substantial loans using that stock as collateral, effectively giving them a way of realising those gains without having to actually sell the stock and pay capital gains tax on it. They even get to offset the interest on those loans for what income tax they do pay.
- pembrook 5y agoThen the author should have written an article focusing on the stupidity of allowing loan interest deductions, not charts of unrealized capital gains trying to conflate it with income. Doesn't matter if you take out loans against those gains, they will be taxed eventually when sold.
- rvense 5y agoBut these people aren't even paying income tax on their normal salaries.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]