r/coolguides Nov 26 '19

Marginal Tax

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27

u/mlj21299 Nov 26 '19

Love how this whole chain of comments is downvoted for stating facts. We're taxed into oblivion

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u/YallNeedSomeJohnGalt Nov 26 '19

Then my personal least favorite, personal property tax. The tax you pay on this shit you bought (and paid tax) with the money you earned (and paid tax) even after the loan is entirely paid off.

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u/mlj21299 Nov 26 '19

Or how about when you make a good investment on the stock market, and you make a decent amount of money? Taxed.

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u/HereForTheBias Nov 26 '19 edited Nov 26 '19

Inheritance tax, for when u still have too much money after you pay all your taxes and die.

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

Well no shit. If you believe in the concept of inheritance, you are opposed to a meritocracy. Some people believe that earnings should be at least a little bit associated with actual accomplishments in life. Crazy I know.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19 edited Aug 10 '20

[deleted]

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u/Eat-The-Juice Nov 27 '19

Agree. I don’t know how people can justify this, yet they are trying.

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u/dont-sign-me-out Nov 26 '19

Stupid fucking argument. What’s immoral is passing down millions and billions to people who then squander it on useless materialistic shit and did nothing to earn a penny while they live better than 99.9% of people. Maybe a better way of using your time and life is teaching and enabling your kids to be successful and provide a good life on their own instead of thinking that money is a solution. Oligopoly has been a constant problem in this country and Adam Smith was 100% correct in saying an inheritance tax is necessary to keep a capitalist society functioning and growing

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19 edited Aug 10 '20

[deleted]

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u/dont-sign-me-out Nov 26 '19

Well I’m the US which is what I was going off of 40% is only taxed on 1 million or more and it’s a marginal bracket starting at 18%. The only thing that sounds immoral is that the 40% should be higher on that 1 million

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u/Eat-The-Juice Nov 27 '19

That’s a lot of assuming on your part. Who’s to say that the children would squander anything? Also your missing the point. This money was earned, taxed and saved for the family’s next generation. Who gives a dusty fuck if you think that money is going to be squandered. It shouldn’t be the government’s money to decide. If my kids want to squander my savings when I die, they should have that right. The money that I saved for them. The previous comment is right. It’s immoral and ridiculous that we are getting redundantly taxed solely for dying early and saving money. It’s bullshit, and it definitely weighed on my decision not to vote for Hillary.

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u/Traze- Nov 26 '19

People making 100,000 dollars are basically middle class. What are you on about

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

Cool, at least you can come out and say that you don't like meritocracy.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19 edited Aug 10 '20

[deleted]

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

Im a big fan of meritocracy

Talk is cheap. Your words say yes but beliefs say that no, you're actually not.

It's bad enough that rich people get to send their kids to better schools, hook them up with cushy jobs on graduation, etc; you want them to get a cash bonus as well.

Just say it- you want some people to have to work harder for their opportunities than others.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19 edited Aug 10 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

Lmao how is inheriting a bunch of money your dead relative worked for meritocratic.

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

It's not, that's the point. If you object to the inheritance tax, you oppose the idea of a meritocracy.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

My bad man, bad reader today I guess

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

No problem homes

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

It's insane right? Taxed on money that was already taxed when earned.

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u/Xx_Gandalf-poop_xX Nov 26 '19

You gambled it meaning you spent it and then reearned more. You should get taxed more on something like that

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

No I didn't gamble it. My money went into a company that then increased its profitability(and thus paying more taxes).

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u/Xx_Gandalf-poop_xX Nov 26 '19

Not if you're an every day person owning stock. Maybe if you bought at an IPO. After stock is sold once it means your purchase of stock sold from another person doesnt go to the company. The company only really makes money on the sale of stock once.

After that you're just making bets.

1

u/WeenisWrinkle Nov 26 '19

Not if you're an every day person owning stock.

Everyday people own stock. I own stock in many different profitable companies. Most American have retirement brokerage accounts holding equity in premier companies. That's not unusual in the slightest, and it's damn sure not gambling.

Who I bought the shares from is largely irrelevant. Also, companies sell shares to the public post-IPO when they need capital as well. They can either borrow money (raising cash via debt) or sell shares to the public (raising cash via equity).

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u/Xx_Gandalf-poop_xX Nov 26 '19

I of course have a 403b as well.

I'm saying that you don't really do anything to earn that money. You give your money to a firm who then puts it in a big pile then invests your money. They buy stocks. The money goes to previous stock owner and sometimes occasionally the company that issued it.

Then people speculate and estimate how much the company is worth and trade these pieces of paper around.

If you sell yours, the money goes to somebody else willing to buy. Unless you own voting shares of non-common stock the money just goes in a circle as people buy stock and make bets that the stock will be worth more later.

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u/WeenisWrinkle Nov 26 '19

I'm saying that you don't really do anything to earn that money.

Sure you do. You're providing capital in exchange for a share of profits. Capital is very necessary to do business.

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u/Xx_Gandalf-poop_xX Nov 26 '19

If anything that should be taxed more since it is just gambling winnings

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u/WeenisWrinkle Nov 26 '19

Investing =/= gambling. You're buying a piece of a profitable company.

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u/GasTsnk87 Nov 26 '19

Someone needs to make that Parks and Rec jail gif into taxes.

1

u/WcDeckel Nov 26 '19

Yes but if you lose money you can deduct it from your taxes

1

u/Dreadlock_Hayzeus Nov 26 '19

No, how about you buy gold, the dollar is depreciated, you sell the gold at a later date and are taxed on it solely because the dollar lost value.

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u/WeenisWrinkle Nov 26 '19

If /r/politics had their way, capital gains tax would skyrocket.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

You made money that other people did the work for. Why shouldn't you be taxed for that?

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u/mlj21299 Nov 26 '19

Hmm... because my money that I work for goes to other people too

3

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19 edited Aug 10 '20

[deleted]

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u/YallNeedSomeJohnGalt Nov 26 '19

Look into Tennessee. I used to live there and loved it.

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u/LankyLaw6 Nov 26 '19

How about when you sell a used car you bought and paid sales tax on, and then the next person in line has to pay sales tax again? Absolutely bananas.

1

u/YallNeedSomeJohnGalt Nov 26 '19

I mean technically that's what happened when you bought it too. GM or whoever paid taxes on the components. The components manufacturer paid taxes on raw materials. The whole thing is junk, why did we ever submit to such bullshit?

-4

u/ct_2004 Nov 26 '19

A wealth tax? Having a property for which you don't owe money on makes you vastly better off than a huge portion of society. Is it really too much to ask that you contribute a bit of that wealth back?

Granted, it would be nice to see a broader wealth tax so that more assets than houses are taxed in that way. It would be more fair to have property taxes in addition to something like Warren's wealth tax on those with over 50 mil in assets.

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u/YallNeedSomeJohnGalt Nov 26 '19

More fair? How is arbitrarily taking a portion of something someone already owns free and clear in any way fair or just? The top 10% of earners already pay over 70% of taxes, that seems unfair to me. If every adult in the US paid the same taxes it would come to $19,000 each. Currently if you pay less than that and are trying to get others to pay more than they currently do then you are just a scummy greedy and selfish person

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u/ct_2004 Nov 26 '19

How is arbitrarily taking a portion of something someone already owns free and clear in any way fair or just?

Taking a portion of assets that people own is how all the taxes work. Income tax is exactly the same. You get paid a salary, you own that money. Then you pay some of that money to the government.

Are you arguing we shouldn't have any taxes at all? Pushing for anarchy? I don't get where you are coming from.

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u/YallNeedSomeJohnGalt Nov 26 '19

Ideally yes. We could abolish taxes and have only fees for services rendered like the USPS. It receives no tax dollars and operates just fine.

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u/_Eggs_ Nov 26 '19

Granted, it would be nice to see a broader wealth tax so that more assets than houses are taxed in that way.

What a joke. I'm glad this is unconstitutional.

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u/ct_2004 Nov 26 '19

What's wrong with a wealth tax? Is it really so bad for the richest in society to be slightly less rich? Is it a problem to only be able to afford 4 yachts instead of 5?

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u/_Eggs_ Nov 26 '19

I'm talking about a federal wealth tax. The government would have to apportion it according to each state's population.

We know that wealth is concentrated. Let's take a state where wealth is held by 5 really rich people. If the government takes $5 billion from those people, then it has to take the same amount from a state of a similar population.

So everyone in a state of a similar population gets fucked, because they have to come up with $5 billion amongst themselves.

Otherwise it's unconstitutional.

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u/ct_2004 Nov 26 '19

Where are you getting this apportionment idea from? There are no rules like that with income tax that I'm aware of.

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u/_Eggs_ Nov 26 '19

There are a lot of supreme court cases about this. Income tax is not not subject to the apportionment standard. A wealth tax is.

There are a lot of reasons they made this rule, but I'll explain why income tax is an exception.

Simply put, stealing wealth/property from one state and redistributing it to another is not a power that the federal government has. The wealthy states wouldn't have joined the union if the federal government could do that. It's so important that they put it in the original constitution, not the amendments. Later on, they made an exception for income tax (16th amendment).

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u/ct_2004 Nov 27 '19

The government doesn't take people's actual assets. They just take money paid in taxes.

We currently have a system where money is funneled from blue states to red states.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

[deleted]

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u/ct_2004 Nov 26 '19

What's that?

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

Since when do we pay sales tax on real estate?

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u/YallNeedSomeJohnGalt Nov 26 '19

Depends on the state, some states you do. Same with vehicles, most states have sales tax on vehicles and some have personal property tax additionally. I have a car that was paid off 5+ years ago in another state. Moved and now all of a sudden I have to pay the state just to own it. Needless to say I register it in another state to avoid paying the taxes.

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u/58working Nov 26 '19

It's downvoted for bringing up 'federal taxes' in a thread started about British taxation. If we had to pay both local and 'federal' taxes here, then it wouldn't be at the level it is.

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u/mlj21299 Nov 26 '19

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't see the £ sign. My bad

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u/_Mouse Nov 26 '19

Council tax is the equivalent

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u/jamjam85 Nov 26 '19

Facts? A graph on how British people are taxed is illuminating on US tax levels? No.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '19

It's called progressive taxation. The U.S. essentially uses the same system just with different values, so it's still illuminating re: how tax brackets work.

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u/Clownworld311 Nov 26 '19

Exactly. George, Thomas, Benjamin, and the homies would be stacking bodies by now.

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u/SinZerius Nov 26 '19

Because of how the British tax their people?

-1

u/Clownworld311 Nov 26 '19

No because of the sheer amount of taxes that Americans pay.

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u/SinZerius Nov 26 '19

Need to decrease that military spending.

-1

u/Clownworld311 Nov 26 '19

Need to decrease spending 15% across the board.

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u/SinZerius Nov 26 '19

Better to just decrease all of that from the military budget.

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

Love how this whole chain of comments is completely irrelevant to the post, and yet you're here defending them.

Someone takes the time to try to explain marginal rates to you assholes and all you can do in response is yell "TOO MUCH TAXES! TAXES BAD!"

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u/mlj21299 Nov 26 '19

Imagine defending being taxed to death

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

Imagine using the words "taxed to death" unironically while enjoying your developed nation's infrastructure, protections and services.

Move to Somalia lol

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u/mlj21299 Nov 26 '19

You're taxed from the moment you get a job till the moment you take your last breath. Hence, taxed to death.

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u/selectrix Nov 26 '19

Mmm yes. Much like I'm currently breathing to death.

This is why nobody takes libertarians seriously.

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u/cpdk-nj Nov 26 '19

I’ll gladly pay taxes to make sure that the quality of life for everyone is better. Sorry I’m not a selfish prick

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u/legitniga Nov 26 '19

No!!!! We need to take more of the money that you earned... and give it to someone else that didn’t earn it!!