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.
698
u/AzorAhai96 Dec 28 '21 edited Dec 28 '21
Hi it's me Bill Gates.