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Rather fun

But the US president abandoned plans for a “billionaire tax,” which would have seen America’s 745 billionaires pay 23.8 per cent on the value of their unsold shares.

Instead, he targeted individuals earning $10 million or more with the five per cent extra tax, rising to eight per cent for those with incomes of over $25 million.

His plan was similar to the “wealth tax” proposed by left-wing senator Elizabeth Warren last year, which was rejected at the time as too radical by many Democrats, including Mr Biden.

Details matter, no? So, which tax is it? Income tax? Then it’s not the billionaires who will be paying, is it? But if it’s on income then it’s not the wealth tax. So, could it be just a raise in the CGT rate?

Hmm….

9 thoughts on “Rather fun”

  1. A wealth tax e.g. on unrealised gains would be unconstitutional, so this must be on income.
    Apportionment principle would apply on wealth grabbing. Federal income tax is excluded AIUI.

  2. The left work on a combination of (i) rich people didn’t really earn their wealth, it’s luck or cheating or exploitation (ii) rich people don’t do anything with their wealth, Scrooge McDuck like, they just sit on piles of cash in mansions (iii) the left know best what to do with money.

    Lets go Brandon!

  3. It’s not fair to ask a man who is overdue a snooze to think about how to pay for policies on his autocue.

  4. The left perhaps 5 years ago was largely unaware that the billionaires’ wealth came largely from share ownership (they’re not the most sophisticated of people). They didn’t know what they wanted to tax, just that they didn’t want people getting rich. Now they know. Taxing unrealized capital gains is going to be a standard left wing goal from here on out, and the targets will eventually go from billionaires to grandma’s house. Somewhere some group is going to get elected with enough votes to pass it, and we’ll see the consequences.

  5. What was left in was a removal of the State And Local Tax (SALT) $10,000 limit on deductions. This was at the behest of wealthy folks in high tax states like California and New York. Of course mostly well off Democrat donors are affected by this. SALT was also enacted as part of Trump’s tax reforms, so it simply must be repealed.

    So here you have a tax repeal, pushed by progressives, that only benefits the wealthy. It’s time to apply some red hot iron to these people’s nether regions.

    Let’s go brandin’!

  6. Dennis, Pointing Out The Obvious

    It is a measure of just how incompetent the Biden Administration is… They propose a massive tax on a powerful group of individuals who have, until now, staunchly supported both Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. This never had a chance of passing, largely because Congressional Democrats are very aware of just how much money they get from billionaires.

    Morons.

  7. @Dennis: ‘As one eminent elected British government official put it, “They are not back in any conventional sense of that word. We have worked closely with the Americans for many decades and we have never seen such a shambles of incompetent administration, diplomatic incoherence, and complete military ineptitude as we have seen in these nine months. We were startled by Trump, but he clearly knew what he was doing, whatever we or anyone else thought about it. This is just a disintegration of the authority of a great nation for no apparent reason.”’

    https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2021/10/has-america-gone-mad-bidens-presidency-now-being-met-with-incredulity-in-europe.html

  8. Bloke in North Korea (Germany Province)

    It really does amount to something if a (presumably) cabinet minister in the Johnson Junta can accuse you of incompetence, incoherence, maladministration, and military ineptitude.

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