Yes, we can.

[Ghoulish Delight]

The standard answer to that is because it's income tax, not wealth tax. If you were to already own 25% of the country's wealth, retire, pull it all out of any sort of savings/investments, would you still be expected to pay taxes yearly on it?

Some say yes, some say no.

But regardless, no matter if you look at wealth or income (or, growth of wealth), the top percentile of individuals in this country pay a significantly smaller percentage of their own fortune than those below them do.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

The standard answer to that is because it's income tax, not wealth tax. If you were to already own 25% of the country's wealth, retire, pull it all out of any sort of savings/investments, would you still be expected to pay taxes yearly on it?

Some say yes, some say no.

But regardless, no matter if you look at wealth or income (or, growth of wealth), the top percentile of individuals in this country pay a significantly smaller percentage of their own fortune than those below them do.

For the record, I say no, because that's double taxation. This is the main reason I oppose inheritance taxes as well....the taxes were already paid on the money (whether this includes legal loopholes or not to me is not the issue), so why should the government be allowed to have more just because the dead person left it all to their kid?

This is the main reason I oppose the income tax at all. I think the founders had it right with property taxes. Who possesses the most property? The wealthy. The wealthy can indeed take advantage of loopholes, but the fact is they are there often times passed into law by the very people that decry them as unfair.

I would have no problem with some form of wealth tax....after all, in reality, that's what a property tax is. I also don't oppose some form of national sales tax (both of those are assuming the income tax went away). I like a national sales tax because that is a tax on consumption rather than earning and is much, much more visible to the consumer.

[wendybeth]

Surprisingly, I agree with Scaeagles with regards to a national sales tax. It's consumer driven, and those who consume the most will pay the most. It seems more equitable, on paper anyway- it's just the implementation that concerns me. The rich have a way of worming out little loopholes and exceptions for themselves.

[3894]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

For the record, I say no, because that's double taxation. This is the main reason I oppose inheritance taxes as well....the taxes were already paid on the money (whether this includes legal loopholes or not to me is not the issue), so why should the government be allowed to have more just because the dead person left it all to their kid?

Now that we have that settled, would someone like to leave me a boatload of money?