Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim in CT
"Uou always try and reduce things to stupidity"
Wrong, I'm one of the few here who often agrees with either side. But the idea of taxing unrealized gains is beyond stupid.
"Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ray Dalio, Mark Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Cuban, Jamie Dimmon all agree that something needs to happen."
Which is why I explicitly said our current tax structure isn't perfect, I have no doubt it can be improved. But taxing unrealized gains is absurd. Equally wrong to say that stock options are untaxed. You don't have a great foundation of knowledge on this issue.
And those billionaires you listed are free to give the IRS as much as they want. Yet none of them ever pay more than the law requires. So it sounds like empty talk to me.
"Gains are unrealized because our tax code is designed to not realize them until certain parameters are met"
Right, they are unrealized until the item is sold for more than you paid for it. Gains are unrealized until you have the money. The value of big assets fluctuates, sometimes wildly. It's not anywhere near feasible to levy a tax based on the value of a held asset. The only practical way to do it is to tax gains when they are realized. Anything else would be impossible.
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Nothing is impossible, though that attitude may be why you are kept in a cubicle.
You do understand that we have no problem taxing people on a valuation basis for what is most families biggest capitol asset, their homes.
The current system does not tax a household’s economic income, which is the sum of the household’s consumption and the change in its wealth during the year. By this standard, all capital gains that occur in the year in question should be included—whether realized or unrealized.
There are a number of ways to change this, none impossible or beyond understanding (look at the current tax code for something that is beyond comprehension)
1. Eliminate step-up in basis at death
2. Tax capital gains at death
3. Tax capital gains on an accrual basis
4. Retrospective taxation