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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: puborectalis who wrote (686063)11/26/2012 2:27:10 PM
From: Bilow  Read Replies (1) of 1582973
 
Re Warren Buffet and Bill Gates asking for higher taxes for wealthy people...

The reason they got so wealthy while paying very little taxes is not because tax rates are low. It's because stockholders are not taxed on "capital gains" on stocks until they sell the stock. So Gates's fortune is mostly in Microsoft stock that has never been taxed.

If they really want themselves to pay higher taxes they should be asking for a rule which forces billionaires to pay taxes on the stocks they own. It's easy enough to do. it's just an accounting change. All we need to do is to require that they mark their portfolio to market at the end of each year and pay accordingly. This makes some economic sense, it would eliminate the reason for holding unwanted stocks so as to avoid (postpone) the tax on it.

One might argue that until they sell the stock they can't take advantage of the gains but this is not true. It's easy to borrow against stock that has gone up in price. You can spend that money, but you're not taxed on it.

But these billionaires aren't asking for a tax hike on the one subject that would hit them personally. Instead they want to raise taxes on small business owners who take profits every year and can't postpone taxes into the indefinite future like Gates and Buffet can.

-- Carl
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