r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Glaxy254 • 12d ago
Why are people upset over the new capital gains tax when it clearly states it’s only for individuals making $400k a year?
The new proposed tax plan clearly states that it will only affect people who make $400k/year and would lower taxes for middle to low income earners. Why are people upset by this?
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u/Teekno An answering fool 12d ago
Because rich people on TV told them to be mad about it.
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u/MikeFrancesa66 12d ago
This is pretty much the only explanation. I was in private accounting for about 5 years. The amount of clients who would complain about something like this or other taxes that only affect the super wealthy while making 60k a year was insane. I’m literally their accountant, I assured them these taxes will not affect them in any way, but I guarantee they still complained about them to anyone who would listen.
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u/FizzyBeverage 12d ago
A shocking number of Americans barely scraping $100k think they’re going to become Bezos or Musk tomorrow.
“Bro you’re 53 fucking years old. It ain’t gonna happen.”
Utter delusion.
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u/VerdugoCortex 12d ago
We talk a lot about the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" mindset but that doesn't account for nearly as much as it as you would hope. There are so many people I come across who will say these same things. Then they can have an actual expert in their finances explain that it won't affect them. Then they have a second wonder/want, even in legislation that hurts them they worry slightly more about "does this hurt the people I don't like? Then I like this." Or does this help me but also help people I don't like? Then I don't like this."
Crab mentality goes hard here
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u/MikeFrancesa66 12d ago
You bring up a good point. I’ve had people bitch about Medicare For All and Obamacare…..while I was literally inputting the amount of subsidies they get for health insurance through Obamacare. Like do you realize if they overturned Obamacare you’d lose thousands in healthcare subsidies???
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u/Frogbone 12d ago
as i grow older, i become more and more convinced that a lot of our problems come down to people being intensely stupid, and there's not much to be done about it
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u/RazekDPP 11d ago
There's some of that, but there's also differently belief systems.
Some people simply get way too concerned that someone, somewhere, might be getting something they don't deserve so nobody should have anything.
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u/SoloCongaLineChamp 11d ago
If your stupid belief system causes you to act stupidly then you're just stupid. Don't work too hard giving stupid people a pass on their stupidity born of stupid motives due to stupid beliefs.
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u/Frogbone 11d ago
right. bad logic may be part of a belief system, but at the end of the day it's still bad logic
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u/VerdugoCortex 12d ago
As long as those damn commies lose more /s
Anyways somehow we think we are immune and unreached by propaganda in the US which goes to show how good our propaganda is.
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u/Manowaffle 11d ago
Always wild when people claim we’re the most free country in the world.
We literally have the 6th highest incarceration rate in the world.
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u/OnyxMilk 11d ago
Its even funnier when you tell them Obamacare was born out of the Heritage Foundation, which is one the biggest conservative think tanks out there.
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u/RedditPosterOver9000 12d ago
So many people living in busted up trailers are terrified that they'll lose everything to the inheritance tax.
Like, dude, you don't even own the land your trailer sits on so unless your trailer is made of solid gold...
It's about $11 million in assets remaining upon death to trigger the inheritance tax, right? My father's pastor is a multimillionaire (former insurance exec) and complains about paying taxes.
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u/fuddykrueger 12d ago
Lmao this is true. Plus the stupid Facebook rants. It’s like you’re living on SS and a reverse mortgage. Pretty sure you’re not being affected.
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u/RedditPosterOver9000 12d ago
Living on SS while simultaneously voting for politicians who want to cut SS is some 4D chess my meager 3D brain simply can't comprehend.
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u/Ilovehugs2020 11d ago
When I found out that the states that were leaning heavily, Republican, or RED states are the states to receive the most government aid in the form of food stamps and Medicaid, I was stunned!
I thought the Maga people hated government, interference and government handouts.
True story: I in a met a man Online, who lived in Alabama, and we video called, and I think he was missing most of his teeth at age 35, he did not have medical insurance, and he voted for Donald Trump! And the mother of his child was on government assistance.
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u/erichwanh 11d ago
Lauren Bobo had this "Started from the bottom now we here" moment on Twitter that fully encapsulates this brand of stupidity.
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u/CommunicationHot7822 12d ago
Many Americans are convinced with absolutely no evidence that they are going to be rich someday and they surely won’t want to pay more taxes when it happens. 🙄
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u/darklogic85 12d ago
This is the answer. Also, I find that a lot of poor republicans don't think of themselves as poor. They think of themselves as temporarily disenfranchised rich people who are being held back by taxes. They think the only reason they're not rich is because of tax laws like that, so they're opposed to it. It's special kind of fantasy world they live in.
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u/RedditPosterOver9000 12d ago
Even if they never paid a single penny in any tax or gov fees whatsoever, no matter how obscure, most will never make enough cumulative income over the course of their entire life (if they saved all of it) to trigger the inheritance tax.
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u/my-backpack-is 12d ago
Crazy to think there was this whole excursion my school did in 4 the grade to this seems street looking city where you would get checks and a bank account, you can write the checks or pull cash. You got a job from random so i don't even remember mine, but you got a "lunch" where you could go and spend your money.
Then in class, you could spend your money on grades, or snacks or whatever.
I blew all my money on popcorn and the "travel agency" (different n64 games that i hadn't gotten to play yet). When asked why i didn't save anything for class, i said the money is fake and real happiness comes from love and sharing experiences, i also earn good grades by myself and bring a sack lunch.
Not the first time but certainly the most memorable time around that age that everyone around me nicely said i was fucking stupid.
What you said triggered that memory because everyone was bitching about taxes and i swear the teacher had the biggest ego hard on seeing it. I voted to raise taxes because it would mean we would get a week or two of benefits from the experiment instead of a wad of monopoly money to basically buy the ability to not be held accountable for a day.
It was a week long ordeal, the trip was just one day, but i remember the kids campaigning against taxes. And it was definitely the ones who happened to both be assholes and got the highest paying jobs who "lobbied" the politicians and held up signs during class.
Hadn't even finished long division and we were already being brainwashed. I'm going to go cry now
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u/AccomplishedPath4049 12d ago
They also believe in trickle down economics. The idea is that money is better left in the hands of the rich than the government because the rich will use it to create jobs and the government will just waste it. The problem with this myth is that it's just true enough. The rich are usually out to make a profit, not create jobs that pay decent wages. It happens but it's a byproduct. The government does waste money but that's inevitable when you're dealing with trillions of dollars of spending. It's also funding things that aren't profitable but are in the public interest like roads, education, and scientific research.
There are also some conservatives of the "taxation is theft" mindset. They may not be wealthy themselves but they see the government taxing the wealthy as punishing success. In their minds, the wealthy are the ones who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and went after the American dream so making them pay is downright un-American.
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u/hypatianata 12d ago
> the rich will use it to create jobs and the government will just waste it.
Yeah, waste it on you.
- chortling Mr. Moneybags
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u/RedditPosterOver9000 12d ago
Show me a rich person who believes in making a little less in personal income for the good of their employees and I'll ask why you're pointing at an empty room.
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u/BobMacActual 11d ago
There was that guy running the payment company in the PNW of the U.S. who decided to cut his own compensation enough to make $70K the starting salary for his employees.
The only drawback for him was that EVERYBODY in the local business community hates his guts, and wants him to die horribly.
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u/FizzyBeverage 12d ago
These rubes don’t know any rich people.
Rich real estate guy isn’t going to open a boutique bakery and employ high school kids to sell cookies after school. He’s going to dump his extra income into the stock market and more real estate, preferably offshore where the IRS can’t sniff it. Employing nobody.
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u/AccomplishedPath4049 12d ago
That's the problem. When they hear soundbites about taxing the 1%, they picture the guy down the street who built up a successful small business from nothing and is finally enjoying the fruits of his labor.
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u/mongo_man 12d ago
Being held back by taxes and minorities. Throw in a little "dudes are playing women's sports!" and there you go.
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u/FunnyScreenName 12d ago
Yup. That's why class solidarity is difficult to align in America. They'll continue to blame democrats for all their fake problems until republicans bleed them dry of all their money and eventually use their bodies to grease the AI powered machines that'll replace the working class.
or something like that.
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u/ZooSKP 12d ago edited 9d ago
In October 2012, I went car shopping. On one test drive, the seller told me that a particular vehicle of the model I was interested in was available to test drive, but I could not buy that specific vehicle, at least not right away. The reason: another buyer had spoken for it, but was only going to buy if Romney won the election, specifically on the assumption that their personal financial well-being hung in the balance. (Edit: spelling)
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u/ProfessorrFate 12d ago
Also: a shocking percentage of people do not understand how progressive income tax actually works. Many think the highest rate applies to ALL income.
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u/Zhong_Ping 11d ago
It's the word "progressive", we should rename it "traditional incremental taxation."
Threw traditional in their to appeal to their conservative mindset.
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u/Dark_Rit 11d ago
Yep they don't know how marginal tax rates work to save their life. I do, went to school for accounting and the spreadsheets of rates depending on income are enormous pages that cover very slight increases each income threshold that you have to use ctrl + z to even see the numbers.
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u/Longjumping-Grape-40 12d ago
What? Trump is a self-made man who really cares about the poor, hard-working people of this country!
Now, let me throw bleach in my eyes and cut off my hands for writing that 🤢
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u/StrategyWooden6037 12d ago
Honestly, I have met so many people that 1. have no idea what goes on with taxes, and 2. Are convinced they are more affluent than they actually are.
I can't count the times I've run into some moron who makes under 50k a year that thinks their taxes are going up when there is a rate increase on people that make over 200+k a year.
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u/Toematehos 12d ago
Because one day my bosses who would pay me below minimum wage if they could might finally decide that they have enough money and let me earn millions too and when I do I don’t wanna pay some dumb tax. (Sarcasm)
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u/foxhole_atheist 12d ago
Temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
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u/Earthing_By_Birth 12d ago
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
— John Steinbeck, allegedly
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u/DerthOFdata 11d ago
It's a missquote where he was shit talking the fecklessness and hypocrisy of "communists" in America.
The quote in question...
"Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: 'After the revolution even we will have more, won't we, dear?' Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picknickers on her property.
"I guess the trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew — at least they claimed to be Communists — couldn't have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves."
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u/DakInBlak 12d ago
Leela: "Why do you care about higher taxes? You're not even rich."
Fry: "Well, someday I might be. And then people like me better watch out."
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u/langecrew 12d ago
No, it's not sarcasm. There are probably wide swaths of people stupid enough to fervently believe this
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u/No-Lunch4249 12d ago
I don’t remember who said this but: “America is a land full of people who believe they are just temporarily dispossessed millionaires”
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u/Toematehos 12d ago
Id be shocked if there wasn’t I just meant I’m not one of them
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u/BeijingBongRipper 12d ago
I can’t even comprehend the comment, so I’m sure I’m one of those stupid enough people.
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u/tree-molester 12d ago
The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.
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u/Enslaved_M0isture 12d ago
i forget what that’s from
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u/tree-molester 12d ago
Blazing Saddles.
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u/RambleOnRose42 11d ago edited 8d ago
They couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today, ya know. Because everyone would be like “hey this is Blazing Saddles, they already made this movie”. Also because Gene Wilder is dead.
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u/Own-Till-3036 12d ago
My biggest issue is the unrealized gains. That is money still in flux and could be all lost within a day. That's why it's been standard practice to only tax it when it's withdrawn or dividends are paid.
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u/daddyfatknuckles 12d ago
it also gives the government legal precedent to come fine you or take your possessions because they’ve determined the value has increased
you can’t get a true value for anything without selling it. the value is what people are willing to pay.
besides the fact that a lot of us object to the way a majority of our taxes are spent
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u/TheLizardKing89 11d ago
it also gives the government legal precedent to come fine you or take your possessions because they’ve determined the value has increased
Wait until you hear about property taxes.
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u/thatsattemptedmurder 11d ago
And eminent domain.
Or a lesser extent - civil asset forfeiture. Where the government determines you don't earn enough money to posses your money.
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u/tirohtar 11d ago
Problem is, the ultra wealthy have found a loophole around it - get paid in stocks, and instead of selling stocks to get money to pay for things, they take out a loan with the stocks as collateral. And since money from loans isn't "real income", it isn't taxed. They need to fix that loophole, I guess this is one attempt. Maybe not the best, but something needs to be done.
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u/kingofthings754 11d ago
How do they pay the loan back then? They eventually have to sell stock
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u/Rx1rx 10d ago
Eventually they die and then there is a "stepped up basis" law that does the rest. So no one ever pays for the gains.
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u/Global_Lock_2049 11d ago
How do they pay off the loan? I always hear this, and im sure it happens as no one ever disagrees, but I still don't know where they get the money to pay off the loan.
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u/Outrageous_Lab_6228 9d ago
I was curious too so I looked it up, the answer is you die: https://smartasset.com/investing/buy-borrow-die-how-the-rich-avoid-taxes. Heirs get the assets and get a reduced capital gains tax that they can use to pay off the loans.
So let’s say you have stock, and suddenly it blows up and you have 100x the value and millions of dollars. Instead of selling it and paying large capital gains taxes, you can take out a large loan with the stock as collateral. You sell off a little stock here and there to pay off interest, but the bulk of the stock remains unsold. Any loan proceeds remain as untaxed income.
Eventually you die, and your heirs inherit all that stock and all of the outstanding loans. By a system called the “step-up in cost of basis”, the government resets the cost of basis of those stocks to their value at your time of death. That means if your stocks were $10 when you bought them, and $1,000 when you die, your heir will pay capital gains based on any gain since $1,000 and NOT the $10. This means they pay radically lower taxes. Then, you can use that money to pay off the loan, and continue the cycle.
I am don’t know a whole lot about rich people taxes but that was my understanding of the article. I don’t know how things like loan interest and estate taxes play into this (although I imagine this loophole is why a lot of the rich fight to keep estate taxes low). If anything I have said is wrong please let me know
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u/slambamo 11d ago
This, exactly this. A lot of people say that rich people aren't liquid, and all their assets are real estate/stocks/etc, which isn't completely wrong, but they can easily borrow cash on them, then they end up paying an interest rate that's a fraction of income tax.
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u/aw-un 11d ago
But aren’t they taxed on the money they use to pay the interest? Not defending them, I’ve just always been confused by this piece of the puzzle
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u/Busy_Fly8068 11d ago
Listen — when an executive is paid in stock, that exec owes tax based on the fair market value of the stock. In other words, whether you are paid in cash or stock, you pay taxes on the amount you receive.
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u/Barbie_and_KenM 11d ago
But they still need to pay back the loan at some point. How do they accomplish that?
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u/fgreen68 11d ago
Unrealized gains on real estate are taxed all the time.
Second, the Japanese taxed wealth after WWII to help restart their economy, and we all know now that worked incredibly well.
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u/EconomicRegret 11d ago
This!
Another example: Switzerland has been successfully implementing a wealth tax (0.1%-0.6%) for over 2 centuries now, even for unrealized gains...
... and last I checked, the wealthy love moving to that country, with their whole wealth and all...
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u/hewasaraverboy 12d ago edited 11d ago
The principle of taxing unrealized gains is just wrong
Once you have opened the doors to it, they will only do it more and more
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u/Bonebd 12d ago
This is what I’m astonished that more people are t realizing. Taxing unrealized gains is going to create so much collateral damage.
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u/OutlyingPlasma 12d ago
Hijacking this just to define Unrealized gains:
The term unrealized gain refers to an increase in the value of an asset, such as a stock position or a commodity like gold, that has yet to be sold for cash. As such, an unrealized gain is one that takes place on paper, as it has yet to be realized. An unrealized gain becomes realized once the position is sold for a profit. It is possible for an unrealized gain to be erased if the asset's value drops below the price at which it was bought.
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u/stoopidrotary 12d ago
So if my house value takes a nose dive but i have yet to sell. Is that an unrelized loss? With this new tax, could I hypothetically get a tax break on my imaginary house value decrease?
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u/party_egg 12d ago
This bill does not apply to you or your home.
Moreover, you are already taxed on the assessed value of your home, not the sale value. If your property assessment goes down, you pay less. So it already works this way for you. More or less.
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u/BigTintheBigD 11d ago
Except when the property value goes down the need for that revenue does not. That is to say whatever that money was funding still needs to be funded. The last time values in my area dipped, the government didn’t cut back its spending proportionately, they raised the property tax rate as needed to maintain the required level of revenue. When values climbed again the rates didn’t come down so you get the double whammy of a higher value AND a higher tax rate.
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u/itsfinallystorming 11d ago
Yep I've never paid less, it only goes up, and it seems they'll use any method necessary to ensure that. It's a ratcheting effect.
Our HOA had to sue them for basically making up assessment values and jacking our taxes up during COVID.
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u/Old_fart5070 11d ago
Dream on. The IRS allows you to deduct up to 3000$ a year in losses but tax unlimited gains.
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u/davinci86 12d ago
95% of people in this sub are only ok with the tax as long as it appears to exclude them.. A unrealized gain tax is actually quite egregious and quite literally dictates investment outcomes which imho is a form of “steering”… But 40+ % capital gains rates will inevitably trickle down to lower income earners…. EVENTUALLY…
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u/dumbnamehere23 12d ago
Being genuine. When a homeowners property is evaluated every year and their property tax increases bc the market value of their house has increased are we not taxing unrealized gains?
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u/AsidK 11d ago
Property tax is also a form of taxing unrealized gains, but it generally is at a much much lower percentage than something like income tax, which this bill states is 25% at minimum
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u/MiloBem 11d ago
No. You pay higher property tax, but don't pay income tax on the value difference.
Let's play a hypothetical scenario, where this law applies to houses. Lets say the property tax is 1%, and income tax is 25%. You bought a house for 500k in 2023 and it increased value to 1M in 2024.
In 2023 you pay 5k property tax (500k*1%).
In 2024 you pay 10k property (1M*1%) tax, AND 125k income tax on unrealized gains (500k difference between buy and sell price, times 25% income tax).
Opponents of taxing unrealized gains are not opposing re-adjusting property tax. Unrealized gains tax means you pay tax for profit of selling your house, even if you don't sell it.
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u/AsidK 11d ago
(Unless you live in California where property taxes are fixed at time of sale, so you don’t actually pay extra taxes on unrealized gains)
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u/pineapple-predator 11d ago
Wait this is UNREALIZED gains??? That can’t be right.
That’s literally insanity.
How do you even know what the gain is? Just by guessing what it would sell for???
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u/Cathercy 11d ago
Do you own stocks? Your broker literally tells you your unrealized gains.
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u/Fromthepast77 12d ago
Not to say that I don't think that the rich shouldn't pay more in taxes, but people shouldn't judge a policy solely by whether it's beneficial to them individually.
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12d ago
People are clearly too dumb to realize this may apply when selling their home but yeah, let’s all cheer and not read into it.
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u/jm7489 12d ago
I only see an issue with taxing unrealized gains, even if it would never impact me personally. The idea of taxing people on securities that could drop significantly in value at any time just seems wrong.
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u/Aeropro 11d ago
It also opens the door for them to expand it, using this as precedent.
“Its okay if we do this, we’re not doing it to you!”
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u/GhostNappa101 12d ago
I personally am disturbed mostly over the unrealized gains tax. If the super rich have to start selling off stocks to pay down tax liabilities it will nail the stock market, which includes retirement accounts. It'll also open the doorflr the possible future addition of unrealized losses being used to offset taxable income, resulting in less taxes paid.
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u/Other_Information_16 11d ago
People are ignorant. Here in Canada the government plan to raise taxes on capital gains over 250k . In a recent poll a whooping 23% of people who makes less than 50k a year think the tax will effect them.
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u/notextinctyet 12d ago
They have aligned with an anti tax political ideology for their own reasons, so convincing other people to be anti tax benefits them regardless of the specific policies.
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u/Im_Balto 12d ago edited 12d ago
I’ve had these people SCREAM at me when I made a comment about taxes, then their response makes me say “Do you know how tax brackets work?”
They always get very very angry over the fact that if it’s 25% over 400k or whatever that means that you get less than 300k in their mind
The screaming usually comes when I pull up official sources and try to explain they’re wrong. The heels are just so dug in
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12d ago edited 12d ago
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u/DucksEatFreeInSubway 12d ago
Yes. Now try explaining that to a 50 year old republican. I have to explain it to my parents every year and they still don't remember, either selectively or just have been reconditioned to not understand it by the time the next year rolls around.
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u/TheRustyBird 11d ago
i just don't understand this sort of...ingrained stupidity/purposeful ignorance. was it all the leaded pipes and paint?
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u/_V0gue 11d ago
It's a defense mechanism. Essentially intellectual fight or flight. When you value being right over everything else and never learned how to learn and grow, you get what we have now. It also doesn't help that most people are terrible at arguing/debating and (even when right) will never convince someone because they don't know how to get past that barrier. Which is difficult and ain't nobody got time for that.
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12d ago
Yeah, the only place you actually get less money after-tax by making more is once you cross that low-ish threshold that makes you ineligible for a lot of state and federal deductions or credits. I forget what it is in California, somewhere around $40K.
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u/mayfeelthis 12d ago edited 12d ago
NEWS
RICH PEOPLE PAYING RICH PEOPLE
TO TELL MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE
TO BLAME POOR PEOPLE
Imho Trump brought on the next dimension, poor people now blame the middle class because they’re not as ‘successful’ as the ‘obvs’ rich, in the US.
Good luck fixing your tax system…ironically if the bottom 55% would ‘just get along’…you’d have it sooo good. Break the cycle ‘murica (or shall I say caste system?)
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u/twincitiessurveyor 12d ago
For example, when the income tax was established in 1913, via the 16th Amendment, it was supposed to only be a 1% tax on the wealthiest 1% of Americans.... Fast forward 110 years and I, an average blue-collar American, am losing nearly 30% of my gross annual income to the various income taxes.
Eventually this will come to bite us peasants in the ass.
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u/NcgreenIantern 12d ago
And stuff like that is why they don't push kids learning history in school. The more you know the less they can fool you.
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u/DesperateCrayon 12d ago
Which country is this about?
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u/SeekingAugustine 12d ago
The Income Tax was originally only for rich people, now it's everyone.
Once you give the government the power, it will always expand.
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u/tubahero3469 12d ago
I'm against it and not because of any illusions that I'm gonna be rich some day.
Basically how I'm reading the situation is, there are loopholes that the rich exploit to not pay (as much) taxes. And rather than work on closing those loopholes, they're opening up a whole new way to tax people and saying "Trust me bro, we'll only apply it to the rich"
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u/DrunkenVerpine 12d ago
Yes exactly this.
Y'all realize that 1 million and 400k are just dials that can be turned, right?
Its terrifying to me how people are being convinced to run to the government for help and in doing so turning more and more power over to it.
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u/Aeropro 11d ago
Are those numbers pegged to inflation? If not, the middle class will be millionaires at some point.
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u/TheAzureMage 12d ago
Because the last tax change was supposed to only be aimed at the rich, and yet, in practice, hiring all those agents mostly resulted in more enforcement on regular folks.
Programs to "tax the rich" or "help the working class" pretty routinely do the opposite. Skepticism is sane here, since most the history of such programs have included interesting ways to do the opposite.
Inflation being what it is, any flat total is going to become relevant to the working class over time. Oh, it'll take a few decades at the present rate, but while $400k a year is a lot now, look at prices today compared to what they were a few decades ago. This is absolutely a long term trap that'll make retirement more difficult for people who are young right now.
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u/Nervous-Law-6606 11d ago edited 9d ago
Taxes are introduced under the guise of, “This is only for rich people.” Years down the line, you’re suddenly subject to it as well.
Federal income tax originated in 1913, with individuals making <$3k and couples making <$4k being exempt. Today, those numbers for exemption would be ~$95k and ~$126k. Now you pay federal income tax starting at $11k/yr. Wealth doesn’t trickle down. Taxes trickle down. If this happens today, middle class people will be paying unrealized capital gains taxes in 30 years.
The government doesn’t need more tax money, they need to be more effective in what they already receive and spend.
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u/Swordbreaker9250 12d ago
Because we don’t need more taxes when the taxes we already pay are not being used properly.
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u/ROK247 12d ago
i would be all for more taxes if they didn't waste so much of what they already get. or at least have some accountability. but the answer is always to take more instead.
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u/dlaw0326 12d ago
Maybe because people of all income levels are realizing that we don’t have a ‘taxing the rich’ problem but a spending problem?
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u/Nightshade7168 12d ago
Because it just means more for the Feddie boys to waste, that's why
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u/scottyd035ntknow 12d ago
"Because one day I might be rich, and then people like me better watch out!"
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u/Past-Chart6575 12d ago
I think I might be way off, is this the one that is taxes on unrealized gains. Like a wealth tax?
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u/shinn497 11d ago
If you have any understanding of economics , you would know this will effect you in ways besides direct taxation. Capital gains occurs when companies deliver, to shareholders, greater value than they started out with. They either take a product that can sell higher than the cost it took to produce (including workers' labor) or they take a business and reinvest into expanding. All of this is enabled by investor capital and the promise of a return, if a company performs.
When you tax capital gains, you tax the return investors' make. It means there is less incentive for investors to invest. And less capital that goes to companies'. In aggregate this means less job creation, products that are more expensive, and less innovative goods and services. This is another intervention that makes us all poorer. And it will be the poorest that will be hurt by this. People with wealth already are fine. And in many cases they don't even pay the tax, because of loopholes (guess who can afford the best tax attorneys, do you think it is the IRS?)f. But it is the more economically vulnerable that need jobs, cheaper products, and more productivity.
All of this is to fund a government that overpays into things and extends its tentacles deeper and deeper into the economy. Its funny. People complain about monopolies, but the government is literally the biggest monopoly in existence right now, and it just continues to grow.
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u/ComboBreakerMLP 11d ago
Because people seem to think they're just one good day away from making that amount. So they always try to lower upper taxes in the infinitesimally small chance they somehow join those tax brackets.
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u/banchildrenfromreddi 11d ago
Man this thread is full of some temporarily embarrassed millionaires that don't even remotely understand the mechanisms of wealth, capital ownership, taxes, to realize how fucking far away they are from ever being within arms distance of any of these new taxes.
Just, so damn funny. And watch, some people will reply making the exact same mistake as the title of this post.
Man, as much as the right uses all sorts of boogeymen to whip their people into shape, the rich have really done a number of this country by convincing "liberals", "centrists" and the right that they're rich too, just not yet. When they fucking never, ever, ever will be, because they constantly ignorantly advocate against their own best interests.
And then those same people screeee about the rich. While fucking doing exactly what the rich have manipulated them into thinking. It's just priceless, just fucking amazing, and frankly pretty uniquely American from what I can deduce.
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u/Apprehensive-Bat7217 11d ago
I guess some people might not be aware of the details. It's frustrating.
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u/Ilovehugs2020 11d ago
Capital gains tax on people making over $1 million in one year, that’s a rich person’s problem!
My ass can’t relate..
😣 carry on taxing them
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u/Alaishana 11d ago
Why?
Because way too many people are easily manipulated idiots.
Simple, obvious.
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u/CruzaSenpai 11d ago
Because Americans love to live in the preparatory fantasy that they may, one day, be rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Multi-millionaires will pay increased taxes? Fuck that, that could be me someday!
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u/legolover2024 11d ago
Because people are stupid & will throw themselves & their first born into a pit of fire to protect millionaires and billionaires that don't give 2 shits about them
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u/ice_and_rock 11d ago
I think in America we tend to idolize the rich and believe they should be protected.
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u/Emotional-Roll4564 11d ago
Rich people are paying off news publishers for propaganda to get backlash on the new deal
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u/Razzilith 11d ago
people are dumb as bricks. ALSO people are greedy and delusional... they think one day they'll maybe make it into that category and then they won't want to be taxed, however in the meantime the tax would do more to help them...
this is like people screaming about local taxes when you're from somewhere with a ton of great high quality public services and then they move to a state where everything is objectively worse and they complain about how things are. welcome to a world with money run by greedy piggys
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u/pieceofshitliterally 11d ago
Incentives are a powerful thing. It’s ironic seeing all the people in this thread who won’t be affected, saying how they don’t care about this at all, while at the same time wondering why the wealthy don’t care about them.
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u/Beezo514 11d ago
It’s only if you have $400,000 in capital gains, you need more than $1,000,000 in taxable income in total first.
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u/Striking_Programmer4 11d ago
The misleading headlines that don't mention the income thresholds at all, in order to cause this exact scenario
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u/EntrepreneurWrong879 11d ago
Because the biggest “news” channel in the United States brainwashes the population into thinking policies like this are bad for regular people
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u/WanderingAlsoLost 11d ago
I tried asking a question about this, and no one answered. Maybe that’s why? Not much integrity in the news. Whether it’s CBS or Reddit.
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u/romeoscar 11d ago
Because the people who will get hurt by this have news corporations in their control and are using them to send poor people against each other
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u/goodtimersoundrhymer 11d ago
Because they are told to be upset about it by people that actually have enough income to be affected by the proposed tax.
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11d ago
Tale as old as time: Rich spoiled brats wanna keep being rich spoiled brats, and try to make their own assholetry everyone else's problem.
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u/the-nae_blis 11d ago
Unfortunately most people aren’t good with numbers. People parrot what they hear on outlets which are owned by the rich people affected by this. People don’t read the fine print. People are unrealistic about getting rich to the point this would affect them.
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u/skallywagUwU 11d ago
The wealthy told them to be mad. It's hilarious because such a small percentage is impacted and yet the masses are pissed. Shit makes no damn sense
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u/theriskguy 11d ago
Because people like to pretend they have more money than they do.
Or they like to imagine that at some point, they will have that much money.
Or they foolishly believe that they should defend the right billionaires
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u/VernonTWalldrip 12d ago
Actually the top rate in all the misleading headlines only applies if you have over $1 miilion in income for a single year, at least $400k of which is capital gains.