• gosling@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Do billionaires actually have billions in real money sitting around? I’ve always thought the billions were in stocks and couldn’t be taxed until they cashed it out and they could technically lose everything if the stock price falls. That’s really fucked up if true

    • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nobody keeps that amount of cash. Even below a million, most people have most of their wealth in either real estate (their own house) or financial securities (stocks, ETFs, bonds).

      Yet, we all gotta pay property tax and capital gains.

      The billionaires just have loopholes that they use to never realize gains with loan schemes and trust funds.

      • gtaman@iusearchlinux.fyi
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        1 year ago

        The billionaires just have loopholes that they use to never realize gains with loan schemes and trust funds. <

        Isnt that then bigger problem than generally tax the rich?

        • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Is there a difference?

          Closing loopholes = taxing the rich

          If the tax code lost all the loopholes, there probably would be no billionaires.

            • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Closing the loopholes is the same thing as increasing the taxes on the rich.

              Just try it and they will find a sad story of some business owner losing the family business because the loophole “serves a vital purpose” and then congress will rush to hell save those family farms.

              That’s the reason no loopholes ever get closed.

              This movie has been on repeat for decades.

              The only way to really solve it is a smarter divide and conquer approach. Separate, stricter rules for the billionaire class that only apply to them.

              That way the small business owners stay out of range and have no incentive to help change the narrative.