Admitting we don't understand, I'm actually willing to hear the explanation of why the fact that the rich invest in assets so that they escape taxes leads to anything else than people wanting for them to pay their taxes like everyone else.
Because the money doesn't actually exist. And forcing them to conjure it up will only hurt everything as their investments and stock disappear.
Networth isn't piles of money nor is it what used to be piles of money, it's the idea of money being traded or accumulating/losing worth as investing pays off or fails.
Individual income is taxed, corporations are taxed, investments are taxed, property is taxed, it's all already taxed.
It ain't about "investing in assets", it's all just assets. Bezos doesn't have unlimited money, he has a lot of money that is accounted and taxed, and then he has what people are trading the idea of money for in gambles for or against his company.
I do agree that financial flows are more virtual and about more money than is actually materially existing. However, this money is not existing in inertia, it's used all the same and as such is almost unlimited money. And tax evasion is still a thing and in percentages, corporations are taxed way less than individuals. If you take Amazon, its tax rate has been 3 times lower than the average tax in the US.
I'm not saying it's not good for them, but if you're admitting that they are just rich enough to not abide by the rules, you're also admitting that the post is right and they do cheat taxes (amongst other things, like respect of basic worker's rights, but this is a whole other debate).
Also, please don't assume we're all like you and Amazon. I don't want to do this. I don't value my own money over the best interests of the place I live in, the same way you don't value your own life over the interests of your country.
I'm paying taxes that are used by my town to build projects benefitting everyone. I'm glad to be part of this. We can vote to say which projects we support and know how the money is used. I'm happy to live in a town with libraries, concerts and movie theaters even though I don't use the latters, rather than keep my money like a greedy goblin and have everyone pay for me like I'm an infant.
They aren't breaking the rules, or the IRS would be on them. They are following the rules, and the new rules being pushed would make business difficult for bug names, and impossible for any small time operations.
Currently my tax dollars are being used go build a rail line in an entirely different state for a city that doesn't actually want it, amongst numerous other cases of theft, so fuck that argument.
The IRS has been on them.
Now, without being in illegality, that is because they're on a blurry line. A good part of their virtual money is just sent overseas to Luxemburg, in a way that allows them to make money on the US territory but not pay their taxes there -and then you have to pay more to build that rail line you don't care about. This is not illegal, but once again, no matter how you look at it, they are making complex operations to declare less money than they actually earn.
I'm going to repeat my second point slowly now: I'm not saying *you* should like how your taxes are used. I don't really care about that. I'm saying that your previous comment assumed *everyone* wants to evade taxes, and telling you that, for instance, it is not my case, so I asked you to not put everyone in the same basket. Fuck my argument now that you've maybe gotten my point.
Just putting this out there, without the "super rich" many jobs, industries, and inventions would never be what they are. If someone does something great and receives great rewards isn't that what we all want a chance at? I don't see why because some rich people are assholes all of them are evil. I live much better then people making double my wage and I'm one of the most favoured people at my workplace. Maybe we can focus on renewing the friendliness between employee and employer then argue about how we feel about rich people?
I agree with this! (The gafa are known for doing the precise opposite of creating a healthy work environment though, and to take this one example, there are huge debates as to whether or not Amazon is economically healthy for the zones in which it's implemented.) But it's another debate, it wasn't originally on companies anyways, so not going into it.
Anyways it's just a fun meme, tax evasion exists, this looks like it, let's just lol.
The super rich can influence politicians into favoring them, basically buying votes, and comparatively, it's cheaper than them paying taxes on personal wealth. I'm totally fine with a low corporate tax rate, actually, but a progressive personal wealth tax I can get behind. And by progressive I don't mean in the sense of a "progressive vs conservative" or any crap like that. A progressive tax system is just a tiered; your first.. say 25k, no income or capital gains tax. 25-50k, taxed at 10%, 50k-100k, taxed at 15%, 100k-200k, taxed at 20%, 200k-1M, taxed at 23%, 1M-10M, 25%, 10M-50M, 30%, 50-100M, 50%, 100M+, 60%. It doesn't mean the 60% rate is applied to lower tiers. if you're making 100M+ a year, personally, you're also using the bulk of the infrastructure in this country in some way or another to make that much money, the least you can do is help maintain it; as it's also in your best interest anyway, as without the infrastructure, you're not making that insane amount of money.
And then we can work on getting rid of loopholes and ridiculous deductions so we don't have a 20k page long tax code that only around 0.5% of the population totally understands.
The income tax we have was originally meant to only impact the top 1 percent for the duration of the war.
The people who want your money cannot be trusted. Do not give even an inch.
Networth isn't piles of money nor is it what used to be piles of money, it's the idea of money being traded or accumulating/losing worth as investing pays off or fails.
Individual income is taxed, corporations are taxed, investments are taxed, property is taxed, it's all already taxed.
It ain't about "investing in assets", it's all just assets. Bezos doesn't have unlimited money, he has a lot of money that is accounted and taxed, and then he has what people are trading the idea of money for in gambles for or against his company.
Also, please don't assume we're all like you and Amazon. I don't want to do this. I don't value my own money over the best interests of the place I live in, the same way you don't value your own life over the interests of your country.
I'm paying taxes that are used by my town to build projects benefitting everyone. I'm glad to be part of this. We can vote to say which projects we support and know how the money is used. I'm happy to live in a town with libraries, concerts and movie theaters even though I don't use the latters, rather than keep my money like a greedy goblin and have everyone pay for me like I'm an infant.
Currently my tax dollars are being used go build a rail line in an entirely different state for a city that doesn't actually want it, amongst numerous other cases of theft, so fuck that argument.
Now, without being in illegality, that is because they're on a blurry line. A good part of their virtual money is just sent overseas to Luxemburg, in a way that allows them to make money on the US territory but not pay their taxes there -and then you have to pay more to build that rail line you don't care about. This is not illegal, but once again, no matter how you look at it, they are making complex operations to declare less money than they actually earn.
I'm going to repeat my second point slowly now: I'm not saying *you* should like how your taxes are used. I don't really care about that. I'm saying that your previous comment assumed *everyone* wants to evade taxes, and telling you that, for instance, it is not my case, so I asked you to not put everyone in the same basket. Fuck my argument now that you've maybe gotten my point.
Anyways it's just a fun meme, tax evasion exists, this looks like it, let's just lol.
The people who want your money cannot be trusted. Do not give even an inch.