It would also be laughably easy to solved the billionaire income tax problem.
If the total amount of loans you’ve taken out using investment vehicles as collateral is over a certain variable, it’s taxed as both income and a realized gain.
Something like, 100x the take home pay of the bottom 20% of workers, which is about $1.6m. Maybe have an exclusion if the loan is for a primary residence if you have no other real-estate holdings.
This also has the added benefit of them needing to pay people more to get cheaper loans.
If the total amount of loans you’ve taken out using investment vehicles as collateral
The banks would simply re-write their lending policies to not require such collateral from ultra-high-net-worth individuals. No collateral, no tax on said collateral.
What we need is a securities tax, payable not in dollars, but in shares of the taxed security. No need for the ultra-wealthy to liquidate their holdings; we’ll have the IRS offer shares comprising no more than 1% of total traded volume of each security, so as to minimize market influence. If it takes 10 years or 200 years to liquidate the taxed shares at this rate, so be it.
Natural persons can exempt the first $10 million of their portfolios; no exemptions for artificial “persons” (corporate shareholders). With a sufficiently high tax rate, shares of the “means of production” (and their associated voting rights) become a valuable asset to the working class, but a significant liability to the ultra-rich.
It would also be laughably easy to solved the billionaire income tax problem.
If the total amount of loans you’ve taken out using investment vehicles as collateral is over a certain variable, it’s taxed as both income and a realized gain.
Something like, 100x the take home pay of the bottom 20% of workers, which is about $1.6m. Maybe have an exclusion if the loan is for a primary residence if you have no other real-estate holdings.
This also has the added benefit of them needing to pay people more to get cheaper loans.
We could also just go after unrealized gains, like we already do with property tax.
The problem is that number is constantly changing. Property taxes have assessors who determine the value and it’s a relatively infrequent change.
By tying it to a loan, you have the value at a point in time where both parties agreed the assets are worth the amount of the loan.
The banks would simply re-write their lending policies to not require such collateral from ultra-high-net-worth individuals. No collateral, no tax on said collateral.
What we need is a securities tax, payable not in dollars, but in shares of the taxed security. No need for the ultra-wealthy to liquidate their holdings; we’ll have the IRS offer shares comprising no more than 1% of total traded volume of each security, so as to minimize market influence. If it takes 10 years or 200 years to liquidate the taxed shares at this rate, so be it.
Natural persons can exempt the first $10 million of their portfolios; no exemptions for artificial “persons” (corporate shareholders). With a sufficiently high tax rate, shares of the “means of production” (and their associated voting rights) become a valuable asset to the working class, but a significant liability to the ultra-rich.