• alvvayson@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    That won’t really solve the problem.

    The ProPublica leaks showed that Musk, Bezos and Buffet only had incomes around the $100K.

    While at the same time, their net worth grew by hundreds of billions.

    • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      That won’t really solve the problem.

      no single policy change will ‘solve’ the problem, that’s why it’s governance, not ‘fix it and forget it’. BUT, one thing that would impact this issue greatly would be the:

      Corporate taxes topped out at 52% - the tax rate was 30% for the first $25,000 in profits that a company made, and 52% for anything over that amount.

      Tesla, SpaceX, etc., earning money would be taxed and that would impact Musk’s value. They hide their money in individual compensation, you tax the individual, they hide it in corporate compensation, you tax them there.

      • TAG@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Tesla, SpaceX, etc., earning money would be taxed and that would impact Musk’s value. They hide their money in individual compensation, you tax the individual, they hide it in corporate compensation, you tax them there.

        You are not going to hurt them taxing corporate income. Business are even better at hiding their money. All revenue is channeled through 4 subsidiaries and a couple off shore accounts. Technically, all branches, except the one in the country with the lowest corporate tax rate, operate at a “loss”.

        See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

        You could try taxing revenue, but that will hurt businesses that are based around high volumes of low value transactions, such as discount retail.

        You could try to tax business based on their asset value, but that will murder traditional businesses like farming and manufacturing, which rely on making a large investment in durable assets and then deriving profit over a long period. More importantly, it will not get any taxes out of tech companies, since most of their value is in intellectual property, something that cannot be accurately priced.

        • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          LOL guess we can’t tax anyone because it never works then.

          NOOOPE.

          I love people like you who have ALL the answers, know “all the possibilities” - you’re so self confident that you really think you know it all. The IRS LOVES people like this.

          They love to spend hours and hours with them, in court. Sure a lot of CPAs have created a lot of dodges in the past. The Tax Code evolves. Our government, slowly, changes and adapts to new fuckery.

          But thanks for assuring me there’s no possibility, your optimism is about as endearing as your confidence.

          • TAG@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            You are right, I was a cynical ass. I apologize.

            What I should have said is:

            Adding more or taxes or higher taxes is likely to primarily hit the working upper class. It will not affect the super rich. If we want a tax system that actually makes the most wealthy pay their fair share, we need to close tax loopholes and creative accounting schemes.

            • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              TY, I apologize for the snarky response.

              In the end, the only way the super rich will pay their share is to innovate in taxation. This is the real reason the IRS needs a few more billion, sure to have more agents, but also to open a quantum taxation R&D unit, I dunno, maybe build them a new kind of super collider, let’s see what happens.

              Anything is better than shrugging and moping “that’s just the way it is.”