Nothing steps Warren Bufffet from taking an income instead of relying upon their wealth.
Comment on The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
damnedfurry@lemmy.world 1 week agoMy “true tax rate” is a low single digit number too, if you measure it the same way, and I make ~$50k a year.
It’s extremely disingenuous to talk about taxes paid as a percentage of income, and as a percentage of total wealth/net worth, in the same breath.
It’s also extremely disingenuous to say someone is ‘avoiding tax’ by not paying tax on their unrealized gains in net worth. He doesn’t OWE any tax on that. NOBODY in the US does.
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 1 week ago
damnedfurry@lemmy.world 1 week ago
He does take an income ($100k, very modest compared to others even in the same company: …yahoo.com/…/why-warren-buffett-only-gets-1747309… ).
And why shouldn’t he continue to own things that are becoming more valuable over time, exactly?
AlotOfReading@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Normal people regularly owe taxes on unrealized gains. That’s what property tax increases are.
damnedfurry@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Not sure what point you were trying to make here, lol. There is no type of unrealized gain that “normal people” are taxed on (federally or otherwise), but Buffett isn’t.
AlotOfReading@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I had hoped the point would be pretty obvious. Most people’s homes represent a significant part of their net worth, often a majority of their assets. The unrealized gains on that are taxed.
Billionaires generally (are there even any counterexamples?) do not have the majority of their net worth stored in assets that are taxed the same way. It’s a meaningful difference.
deathbird@mander.xyz 1 week ago
It is kinda weird that real estate gets taxed just for existing and being held, but stocks, which supposedly represent a fraction of a mass of real wealth too, don’t get taxed while just being held.
damnedfurry@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Actually, there are a large number of billionaires whose primary assets are literally property.
forbes.com/…/the-richest-real-estate-billionaires…
But the real question is, do you think they should be? 'Cause I’m with you if you say no. Unrealized gains should not be taxed at all, it makes no sense.