SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
April 2, 2019
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, announced today that he would soon release a proposal to eliminate massive tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthy on their capital gains income. If successful, the proposal would ensure that income from wealth is taxed just like income from work.
His plan, which he has promised to flesh out in a white paper in the coming weeks, would tax the appreciation of assets owned by the very wealthy as income each year, an approach known as mark-to-market taxation. It would also subject that income to ordinary tax rates rather than special, lower income tax rates that apply to capital gains.
https://itep.org/sweeping-reform-would-tax-capital-gains-like-ordinary-income/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-democrat-proposes-annual-tax-on-unrealized-capital-gains-11554217383
(Score: 2) by SemperOSS on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:45PM
It is mostly correct, only it becomes complicated through the fact that the capital gains may actually indirectly be realised before its time through lending. As an individual, you may take out a mortgage in your house to buy another house, which you rent out, using the rent to pay the mortgage (and then some). You then mortgage the new house to pay for another rental house in the same manner as the first. You can create a very long chain of mortgages this way, which could create a good income for you based on, in reality, mostly untaxed assets. It is obviously a gamble in some ways, but I know that some people in the UK have made a thriving business out of doing just this. After some years, as the mortgages are paid out, you will own the houses outright thus increasing your income as the repayments stop and you stop paying interest.
Housing is one way but Big Industry™ has even better ways, I am sure, as they have expensive lawyers and financial experts to optimise this beyond reason. So yes, I agree, stop the loopholes that makes this possible and find a sensible way to handle it all.
I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
Maybe I should add a sarcasm warning now and again?