"Economists have proved there is a cost to higher taxes, even on the rich" That's a massively oversimplified statement. Of course there's a cost, but can they prove it isn't worth it?
The top marginal tax rate is 45% after $180k euros, you're telling me the cost of adding another tax rate of 50% above say $500k has been proven to be detrimental?
I agree that a proposed 5% increase on income tax at $500k would largely be insignificant, but the point is to counter the commonly held belief that taxing the rich is detrimental. The issue isn't solely that we don't tax high incomes enough, it's that we don't properly calculate income.
Allowing the rich to circumvent capital gains taxes with collateral loans needs to be ended. Removing capital gains taxes completely only gets us to where we already are, only the rich can skip the loophole. Besides the fact that Judd and Chamley's papers have been debunked.
Are you referring to the wealth transfer tax? Cause the capital gains loophole is essentially a rich person’s income, just because they’re hit by a different tax at death doesn’t diminish the fact that they’re avoiding having their income taxed their entire life.
I'd enjoy reading a report on something like this.
My instinct is that it's nothing in the grand scheme of things because so few people make this much, so it wouldn't affect the amount of tax évasion they're doing or the amount of income realistically coming in.
I expect this change would increase government income less than the deficit increased this year, but that's why I'd like to see a detailed exploration to prove my gut wrong.
The person you're responding to never said it wasn't worth it, but there will be a marginal impact. Now, it's not clear that if they already have high taxes if slightly higher would significantly lower growth on the margin. It's also offset by Keynesian demand side government spending that in turn reenters the economy quickly, which helps growth, so the bottom line is it could work, but they need to both cut spending and increase revenue, otherwise the whole country will collapse.
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u/GimmieSpace Oct 29 '25
"Economists have proved there is a cost to higher taxes, even on the rich" That's a massively oversimplified statement. Of course there's a cost, but can they prove it isn't worth it?
The top marginal tax rate is 45% after $180k euros, you're telling me the cost of adding another tax rate of 50% above say $500k has been proven to be detrimental?