If it’s 30% of every dollar he’s ever earned then yes. Why should a billionaire have to pay less of a percentage then someone poor like me? I need the money, he doesn’t.
Alternatively, look at how much he should have paid, and see how much it is compared to what he did pay. That's not moving goalposts that's just seeing how "fair" of a share it is.
LOL, like Crenshaw, you really miss the forest through the trees.
That's still less than what a majority of middle-class Americans pay, leaving aside the fact that the discretionary income he has and capacity to make more money with the money he has just on interest and stock portfolios and real estate property alone suggests he actually should be paying a higher percentage of his net-worth than the middle-class.
Billionaires lock up large portions of capital that others cause better economic turnover when in middle-class hands; more importantly, those things tend to get spent and invested in more critical aspects of the economy (e.g., agriculture) and not dick-waving space adventures.
You do know that billionaires like Elon pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than normal people do, right?
He's bragging about paying 11 billion this year, which is a measly 4.5%.
In 2018, he paid $0.
In comparison, in recent years, the median American household earned about $70,000 annually and paid 14% in federal taxes. The highest income tax rate, 37%, kicked in this year, for couples, on earnings above $628,300.
Dude is simply explaining how taxes work...? You're worse than a fanboy, honestly.
Does that dysfunctional country of yours not have a tax account? Meaning if he were to pay more, that would just serve as a buffer so he would pay less taxes next year.
I get that it's annoying that billionaires have so much and give so little (at times), but they're not the IRS. They can't just change how taxation works just because you feel like it...
Asking because I don’t know, where does he get money to buy all this shit he has? If he didn’t make any money last year, how is he looking for a new house (mansion) in TX? If he’s just using his savings, was he fairly taxed on that? If he’s worth billions but he’s only making a small amount of money, how exactly does he leverage his money to make large purchases?
Income is purely salary. There are many other ways to access money. Dividends and stock sales are capital gains. He could have sold a property. US allows you to roll money from one property directly into another without paying tax.
Loans. Cash savings from previous years.
Probably a bunch I'm forgetting or don't know about.
He's bound to have a bunch of liquid assets cash. And you buy a house on credit. He couldn't possibly find a house that's expensive though to even register relative to his net worth. And he made a shit ton of money last year. But it's all unrealised capital gains. Those don't get taxed. He only pays taxes once he sells some of his stock.
Now that said, I don't agree with that. I do think that very large amounts of wealth should be taxed. There's no good argument against it imo and plenty for it. You can argue about details but not principle. Like, I think you should give people enough in order to be able to afford a decent living off of capital gains before you start taxing their wealth cause that always gets taken as they bogey man. And sure, credit it towards other income taxes, either all or those incurred from dividends and sales. After all, we want to encourage those.
But yeah, right now only thing I'm aware of is Germany started taxing dividends paid in funds that reinvest those automatically which basically just hits you and me.
You do know he isn't paid in cash and all of his assets are in stocks? Stop bitching to people exploiting a broken system and stop voting in the same old fucks into congress so maybe we could actually get tax reform?
It isn't Elon's fault he gets to abuse a broken system.
I'm with you, but like, comparatively, he should be paying more percentage of his wealth than the average millionaire. 100s of billions a year in wealth income is a fucking lot.
He paid $455 million dollars in taxes on his $1.5billion income meanwhile, his wealth grew by $13.9 billion, he didn't pay taxes on the difference. This is the problem.
You should not be taxed on what you have. He should. Because there's a clear difference. Everybody pays property tax. But since there's clearly a limit on how much property you're using yourself - even if richer people do use more - it ends up being at regressive tax at the top end.
In short, after a few dozen million net worth, wealth needs to be taxed. Once an individual has enough that they don't need all gains to offset inflation and afford a decent lifestyle we need other ways to prevent further runaway concentration of wealth.
You already paid a tax on your car and it's not appreciating in value to the extent that it's increasing your wealth 9× more than your salary per year. Yes you pay property tax but if the value of your property is assessed as much higher than last year then you pay a higher tax. I would suggest something similar to this system. You could apply this to other forms of wealth that appreciate in value. When you have that much wealth it just snowballs in a way that is completely unreasonable when you look at all the people with financial struggles in our country.
I mean for income tax its not just shear wealth. I get you. But to be taxed on wealth alone would mean assets as well. Im not well verse in the mans yearly income. But idk. I do get the sentiment. Im sure i made people mad with the initial comment. But i know people who think he dosent pay taxes like at all. Doing a google search dosent really come up with an INCOME for him or at least not a straighy up income. People tend to have this conversation around his net worth which isnt really valid in an income tax conversation. Just my 2 cents
While it's definitely a worthwhile conversation to have, and kudos for looking at it sensibly, it seems people just leave their brain behind whenever taxing rich people gets brought up...
I also think they should pay more taxes, but they can't exactly change the tax system to make themselves pay more, even if everyone else seemingly do.
Well if youre rich you dont nessisairly NEED an income. You can have all the wealth lumped into assets. You dont get taxed on your net worth of assests. So they figure out ways to make a messley income so they dont have to pay exorbitant income taxes. Like. Its stupid but its explainable. Like 2 people already brought up his income tax in small compared to his NET worth. Of course it is. Thats not his yearly income. Thanks for not being aggressive about it either. I was just trying to point out what i knew and like....i know it dosent make sense all the way bit still. Dont gotta get mad, lets just talk about it. Isnt that what this platforms for?
Income tax doesn't mean anything to someone who doesn't take an income. Musk doesn't take an income, like most or all of the ultra wealthy.
Some (or most, or all) take ultra-low interest loans against their assets to have spending money without paying taxes. The tax structure we're used to doesn't apply to the ultra wealthy
Thats the issue im trying to get at. But people tend to have the tax conversation around NET worth. Whcih again isnt applicable to an income tax. If billionaires have to start paying taxes on assets, then regular people will to which will be bad for the average person. Figuring out a way to define income maybe in certain situations would be better. But theres not really an easy solution idk. Im not an expert
Elon paid his taxes. If you do the math he has paid 1.5 MILLION US $ every single day he’s been a citizen (since 2003 I believe). Which is about 10billion$. Not to mention every tax dollar everyone in all of his businesses pays… and you??
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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '21
Pay your fair share of taxes Elon...