this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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A new report from Americans for Tax Fairness found that America’s richest families accumulated $8.5 trillion in untaxed capital gains in 2022

America’s wealthiest families held an astounding $8.5 trillion in untaxed profits in 2022. According to a report from the nonprofit Americans for Tax Fairness, which analyzed Federal Reserve data, “one in every six dollars (18 percent of the nation’s unrealized gains is held by these roughly 64,000 ultra-wealthy households, who make up less than 0.05 percent of the population.” The report comes as the Supreme Court gears up to decide a case that could preemptively block any efforts to tax the wealth of billionaires.

The data looks at “quiet” income generated by “centi-millionaires,” Americans holding at least $100 million in wealth, and billionaires through unrealized capital gains. Those gains accumulate, untaxed, as assets and investments like stocks, real estate, bonds, and other investments increase in value. If those assets are not sold — or “realized” — they are not taxed, yet America’s wealthiest families can leverage that on-paper value increase to secure favorable loans with low-interest rates in lieu of using taxable income to finance their lifestyle.

“Of the $139 trillion in America’s national wealth, almost three-quarters (73 percent) is held by the richest 10 percent of households, over one-third (35 percent) by the richest 1 percent, and an astounding 11 percent — $15.2 trillion — is held by the handful of fortunate households that make up the billionaire and centi-millionaire class,” the report says. “The wealthiest 1 percent of households hold 44 percent of national unrealized gains ($21.2 trillion), with billionaires and centi-millionaires alone controlling 18 percent ($8.5 trillion).”

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 162 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And yet people who want raises are the drag on the fucking economy.

[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 41 points 10 months ago

And all those damned social programs.

I know I'm on one, but that's because I actually need it, not like everyone else who are just abusing it. Mostly those foreigners who are both lazy and murderous, but also stealing my job

/s

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 98 points 10 months ago (31 children)

When has the US turned into a regime led by the supreme court? All my life, whenever something was up, you heard what the president did or tried to do or whatever. Nowadays, all headlines about the US are about something the Supreme Court with it's undemocratically elected judges gets to decide over all lawmaker's heads.

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 74 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Congress being so bad at legislating has basically forced the Supreme Court to legislate. I obviously don't agree with decisions like ending Roe v. Wade, but abortion should never have been up to them in the first place. Those kinds of decisions should be up to congress to make clear laws.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago

Don’t worry, when Trump is reelcted, he’ll fix that glaring loophole and make himself supreme ruler.

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A friend of mine used to call them 'our mullahs'. I used to laugh him off. Now, I'm not so sure.

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[–] ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 69 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is how you get nobility. Before Reagan, wealth typically dissipated by the third generation. We are heading toward the old European model, where families are rich for a millennium.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago

Hopefully we can also head for the other old European model of dealing with them that the French popularized.

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[–] crsu@lemmy.world 69 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Billionaires are the real welfare queens

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[–] ZeroCool 64 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fortunately for the billionaire class, Clarence Thomas' legal opinion is always for sale.

[–] crsu@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Clarence Thomas is a traitor to the human race. He'd sell us out to aliens if given the chance.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 53 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Societies should not allow billionaires as long as there are people who can't even get food on the table. It's just morally and ethically wrong. Some would even say unchristian.

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[–] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 39 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's a good thing ZERO Justices have taken luxurious trips and gifts paid for by these same exact billionaires that could inject literally TRILLIONS into our communities!

[–] spider@lemmy.nz 14 points 10 months ago

It's the best Supreme Court money can buy!

[–] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

Fuck that’s a big boat.

Does one person seriously need a boat that big?

Like you can have a smaller boat but it still be tens of millions of dollars and not require an army to crew.

[–] PixellatedDave@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

It's not even just the price of the boat though. It costs around 10% of the cost of the boat every year to keep it running.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

Oh they have a smaller boat too. It's inside that big one.

[–] solarvector@lemmy.zip 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But just think about how many jobs that boat is creating!

[–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 12 points 10 months ago

That was unironically the argument when people were asking why do we have to take a historic bridge apart (again) in Rotterdam just to let Jeff Bezos' toy out to the ocean.

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[–] crsu@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)
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[–] quindraco@lemm.ee 31 points 10 months ago (6 children)

The solution here isn't to tax unsold goods, it's to tax the banks on all the income they're getting from these loans.

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[–] calypsopub@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (1 children)

TBF we are talking about unrealized gains. Their investments are worth more on paper, but until they sell them, the actual profit or loss will fluctuate. It would be an accounting nightmare to figure tax on unsold investments every year. I do, however, think capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as wage income.

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (22 children)

They should be forced to sell, that is the point. Accounting is complicated because people want to hide wealth. None of this is actually complicated it's just been made complex.

[–] Natanael 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's a better solution. They take loans with these assets as collateral. Tax the use of collateral (as a kind of advance capital gains).

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[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Not forced to sell. Prevented from leveraging as debt

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[–] Coach@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (11 children)

roughly 64,000 ultra-wealthy households

Get your forks and knives ready, fam. We'll be eatin' good, soon.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Guillotines

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[–] verdantbanana@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

headline should read

they want to "PAY" the Supreme Court to keep it that way

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 26 points 10 months ago (4 children)

$8.5 trillion in untaxed profits in 2022.

through unrealized capital gains.

Just to be clear, we're talking about wealth taxes, not income taxes. Yes, the wealthy have all kinds of avoiding paying fair income taxes. But, this is a different issue, this is a wealth tax.

It's important to realize, that most of the US already has a form of wealth tax: property taxes. The thing is, property taxes are a regressive form of wealth tax. Sure, the poorest people pay no property-wealth tax, because they're not wealthy enough to own taxable property. This time they do catch a slight break. Anybody who is middle-class and lucky enough to own a home pay the highest percentage of their total wealth as property-wealth taxes, because virtually all their wealth is tied up in that property. The wealthy pay almost no property-wealth taxes relative to their total wealth because only a tiny amount of their wealth is tied up in property.

If you graph it out, at the bottom the effective wealth tax is zero, then it jumps to a much higher number, then it declines more and more as you get richer and richer.

I say screw property taxes and replace them with a proper progressive wealth tax. Along with that, an inheritance tax with teeth and proper enforcement. The grandkids of billionaires should be starting on an equal footing with everyone else.

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[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

"But what if I become rich... I should vote against my best interests just in case."

In terms of unrealised gains, that's kind of a tricky one. They certainly do benefit massively from unrealised gains though, like anyone would on paper.

[–] guacupado@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

The best quote for this I've ever heard is "Europeans vote like they'll one day be poor. Americans vote like they'll one day be billionaires."

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[–] Melody@lemmy.one 25 points 10 months ago (2 children)

We need to tax them on a different basis once they achieve far more than is reasonable for themselves and their family.

Instead of taxing them for the value of liquidity moved into or out of their care; we should tax them based on how much their value grows each year as well as assessing any normal "wage tax" as needed.

So if you grow in net worth value by 200%, so too do your taxes grow by a certain percentage. This tax is then paid directly each year. Your losses in worth do not count, and do not decrease your taxes until several years later. This should prevent anyone from tax dodging this, as even if you only held the money for long enough to activate this tax, you still held it.

This tax also applies to companies holding, far in excess, more money than they reasonably need to operate normally. No business shenanigans should save one from being taxed for accumulating more wealth than reasonable.

While most people in the world need not fear tripping this tax, anyone who is within the top 1% should be wary of it.

[–] Natanael 10 points 10 months ago

This has complications for people who own assets they can't sell in part, especially somebody inheriting a family property, etc. But it's solvable, because the main loophole these billionaires use is to take loans with the assets as collateral, generating cash flow which cost them less than taxes (interest rate is below taxes), so then we can tax the use of collateral in loans instead as a complement to capital gains tax on sale.

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[–] Okigotitnow@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago

Nobody needs this kind of wealth. You have to be a real douchbag to buy this kind of boat. Many ways to use wealth without showing off in this un tasteful way. Unfortunately most of society today loves to see rich people on tickfuck and instagram. It will only get worst.

Read a book have a beer with a friend. ok bye.

[–] Shadywack@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

The solution is simple. Murder them and all their heirs. Begin a new Bastille Day.

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[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

Billionaires will never allow things to be fair or nicely do the right thing. People know what has to happen, it won't be via a court ruling. Plus they have class solidary and own judges/people in power.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I find it super weird that there are people out there that still defend this practice while they make no money and live in a ‘trickle down’ delusion.

I’ve had numerous conversations with two of my brothers who have no money but this ridiculous ideal they are in the same box as musk and treat him like he’s vulnerable as if he represents ‘the working man’.

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[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

No fucking shit

[–] butt_mountain_69420@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

It's a feature, not a bug, you silly goose. Now get back to work making excess profits.

[–] TigrisMorte@kbin.social 10 points 10 months ago

And once enough "friends" have stepped up to show their "friendship" to the iSCotUS, they'll rule as the "friends" desire.

[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I'm gonna call this now. The Supreme Court will uphold keeping trump off the ballot. But won't allow a wealth tax, because this Supreme Court will attempt to do a "this for that" deal with the American people.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 10 points 10 months ago

Resetting the cost basis on death is a huge issue.

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