• RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Because a business use of a yacht (hypothetically) is not income. You get your yacht but no worries about it being taxed as income. You also completely skipped loans, loans are not income and therefore not taxable under your scheme, and portfolio loans are a huge part of how the wealthy get spending money. Now before you reiterate yet again you said all sources I want you to think a minute that these taxes are going to be applied to you, too. Your 401k. That’s investment. Your home loan. You want to tax that? How about your car and student loans. More taxes? Still sound right? Do you want to make carve outs for those things? That sounds suspiciously like writeoffs or “deductions”.

    We could sit here all day and quibble over what is and isn’t income, but at the end of the day you’re going to end up with exceptions, or “deductions”, and if you’re going to say “well, nobody making under ‘x’ amount should be taxed on a 401k…” and now we’re right back where we started with a rich person making less than ‘x’.

    Flat taxes are not going to work.

    They are not fair.

    You need a wealth tax and you need a tax that attaches itself to the vehicles used by the wealthy to get money that is under- or not taxed. Tax personal or portfolio loans over 100,000 not used for housing, medical care, or education. Stock options issued in lieu of or along with salary as compensation should be taxed as income when sold. Do not tax individual personal retirement accounts that deliver less than “x” income or payout to persons of retirement age. This is how you tax wealth and protect the normal persons. Not 10% of the $81k salary the billionaire gives himself.

    • Vandals_handle@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Not advocating for flat tax, I’ve said flat tax not fair, we’re in agreement on that.

      I stand by my statement that a flat tax scheme applied evenly to all sources of income with no deductions to shield income, is fairer than the current scheme. Your arguments that flat tax scheme is unfair are all true but do not repudiate that statement.

      I say it again, fairer than the current scheme. Don’t tell me not fair, I agree. Tell me how everyone paying the same rate would not be fairer than the current scheme where wealthy are able to pay a lower rate. Again, fairer than, not fair.