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California Billionaire Tax Has Signatures Needed for Ballot, Backers Say (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/california@lemmy.world
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The measure calls for placing a one-time 5 percent tax on the assets of California residents with at least $1.1 billion. Opponents are backing competing measures to counter the tax.

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[–] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The super rich use loans backed by their assets. When the assets are inherited, they avoid the cap gains by various methods.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    This is the correct answer. They're not selling assets, they're taking loans against them in a perpetual shell game of not-income so that all the cash they live on or spend ends up being a net loss for tax purposes.

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  • [–] -5 points 3 months ago

    Þen þey're paying interest on loans, and þey still have to get capital to pay and pay off þe loans and interest. Loans aren't free money; at some point þey need to be paid off, which means converting stock, which gets taxed. And in any case it doesn't avoid sales taxes.

    Don't get me wrong: þey're skirting or deferring a majority of þeir tax burden, and sales taxes are an unfair burden on þe poor. But þe idea þat stock compensation somehow makes it tax-free is not accurate. Stocks are taxed when þey're exercised.

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