Another win for the wealthiest Americans (and corporations) - diverting limited IRS resources to finding the leak instead of closing down avoidance loopholes.
@@markmyjak7739 Loophole = "an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system...which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose". In the US, tax rates go up as income goes up. The PURPOSE is for higher earners to pay more taxes than lower earners. When ultra-wealthy people exploit LOOPHOLES such as the concept of REALIZED vs UNREALIZED GAINS (if you don't know, look it up) to APPEAR to not have earned any money in a given year (even though they earned billions) and then choose instead to BORROW RATHER THAN SPEND their own earnings so that they can pretend on their tax returns that they "earned" nothing and thus pay no income taxes, they are using a LOOPHOLE to avoid the purpose of the law. It is not illegal because the US Gov. allows the wealthy to participate in defining the terms of the law (e.g. Earnings vs Capital Gains - a distinction concocted only to enable rich people who earn their money mostly from investments and inheritances (and not salaries) to avoid taxes, while salary-earners must always pay--to make sure, employers and the govenrnment have agreed to pull estimated taxes (elegantly called "withholdings") from their salary and send it to the government before even cutting them their paychecks. The ultrawealthy are trusted much more than that: you don't see their brokers deducting their taxes before reinvesting their dividends--what a strange concept! That would have been in a fairer version of the USA. Instead, the ultra rich are permitted to "not realize" their earnings by not selling their stock shares, even though they have increased in value and have earned them money. This is real money that everyone pretends is "unrealized," as if it doesn't exist...yet...but, again, this distinction is only a charade to help them avoid taxes: banks know this game and play along, otherwise they wouldn't lend money to someone who "earned no money". Yet they do, and the banks get interest, in turn, for lending money to billionaires with "zero income" (but worth billions). Don't worry, the tiny interest these billionnaire borrowers pay to their banks is nothing compared to the taxes they are avoiding paying to the government. Meanwhile, the US government says it can't afford to cover veterans' health care costs, can't afford to educate US children for free (like other less corrupt countries), and can't afford to offer US citizens and legal residents free health care (like other less corrupt countries). If just a few of the billionnaires paid taxes, that would fund all of these projects and then some, and transform the country and offer a much better quality of life for everyone.
@@wysiwyg1 My point is, one owning a home is not a business unless you are ma money from it. Key word is Corporations. They use corporations they set up and put their assets under the corporate entity which protects their stuff from ignorant people like you who may try to sue them and take their stuff . As well as keeping them from paying income taxes and minimizing taxes in other areas. Don't get mad at them for taking advantage of the system after learning it. Learn the system and do the same thing.... Got it now lil buddy?
Not so fast. Pluto was taken for tax by the solar system duty authority, Omnicracy. There's just a small hole where it used to be. Now, a large hole is Uranus, a large gaseous planet. The Chinese are claiming it. They will open a bacteriological warfare complex (health resort) and yearly orbit to Earth to *-not-* infect the world every year, year after year, while we investigate the obvious.
I wouldn’t say it’s a loophole. When they borrow against their assets, they borrow from private lenders not government. No different than when we take out a mortgage. The lenders that make money from it are paying the tax instead of the borrowers. So IRS is not missing out. But if we start taxing unrealized gain, our economy will collapse. No one will start a company and no one will buy a house.
@@dp26385 oh yea it’s definitely tax dodging but can you blame them? If you bought Amazon at $2000 and it went to $3000 next year but you haven’t sold it, do you want the man come and tax you on the $1000 unrealized gain? You haven’t made any money on it so how fo you going to come up with the cash to pay tax? Another question is how the government going to gauge the value of the asset when it wasn’t sold? I’d you owned block buster stock bought at $1 30 years ago and held it all the way down to 0. If we had a wealth tax you would be forced to pay tax every single year until the year they went bankrupt. Even though you lose that $1.
@J Watson that’s a loan where they pay interest on and they have to give the money back to the lender. When you buy a house with 20% down you are essentially having the house as collateral to get 80% of the value. Basically you are spending $1 to get $4 loan. Are you saying you want to pay tax on the $3 even though eventually you have to pay $4 back to the lender? What kind of backward logic is that?
This is stupid. What about millions of regular people who have margin accounts? Should they get taxed on unrealized gains? This is going to hurt everyone. Building your own equity is accessible to everyone. Everyone should use them. Every loan and equity have risks and that's why unrealized gains are not taxed. Imagine taxing an unrealized gain this year then the next year it becomes -50% due to problems. Those taxes paid should be returned back with interest.
That’s not going to happen. It obviously doesn’t make sense. It’s the loophole of borrowing against stock and never paying it back or paying any taxes which is the problem. It’s a legal loophole.
@J Watson equities don't end in just stocks but also in other assets like real estates. You can borrow against them. Borrowing against your assets is also highly risky and you still need to pay the debt back. If it was used for a business, that is still deductible. Imagine buying a home. You pay for the down payment. There's a reason you don't get taxed on the remainimg amount as income coz you will get screwed the next year.
How about this? Stop buying from Amazon, don't buy Louis Vuitton, take public transit more instead of drive, switch from Microsoft to Linux Operating System (its free), and go out and talk to real people instead of using Facebook.
Wow that’s so sensational. Tax avoidance is legal tax evasion is not. They are the tax laws and if you change them people adapt. The US government according to Federal reserve data has only been able to collect around 16.7% of GDP as taxes regardless of tax rate policy, rates, or pretty much everything else. Behavior shifts and changes, and 16.7% is pretty good when you look globally. What’s the funny part is a politician promising they can pay for something by increasing taxes is not supported by the data. Their projections? Sure, but that assumes this time is different. And mind you that 16.7% number has a very small change to the positive and negative over time but it’s nothing noticeable.
It’s interesting and surprising to hear the statement that most people didn’t know this. Glad people are starting to pay attention to what’s going on in the world!
Yes indeed people need to pay attention to this issue. I am quite uneducated about taxes & how wealthy people use them to their advantage. The more this is in the news, the better for the masses.
What they are doing is legal. “The rule of law has regularized and maximized the injustice that existed before the rule of law, that is what the rule of law has done.”
Here is the fix for all the tax avoidance. Stop taxing on what you earn, and start taxing when you buy. No deductions, no write offs. You buy steel for your factory, you pay tax on it. You buy stock, you pay tax on them. What ever you buy, you pay a federal tax on it. The drug dealer pays tax when he buys the new Rolex.
That is basically how tax systems in South America work. Essentially, developed countries have strong employment systems in place whereby most people's income is registered and there is not much black economy, so it's relatively easy to do a paper trail and follow the direct taxes. Conversely, in underdeveloped countries, many work informally, so no payslips, cash in hand, no records etc. thus taxation codes focus on indirect collection, i.e. sales taxes
I can't wait to see this billionaires on tv explaining to us why is not good for us if they have to play more taxes. They all would love to pay more but ....
europe calling - in europe we have very transparent tax information, in some countries everybodys salaries are public info, if you havent paid a decent amount of taxes you are not a respected member of society.
That's a good thing, however in the U.S. the wealthy totally control the republican party and it virtually impossible to make the wealthy pay their fair share.
@@thewolfdoctor761 corporate donations are totally banned in many european countries, only private citizens can donate - for better transparency and better accountability. It also keeps the shady criminal money out of politics. We also have taxpayer money supporting the political parties - to give them less motivation to seek donations.
The US needs to do a complete revamp of the way Stock compensation is taxed - For example taxes on stock compensation above a certain threshold should be recognized immediately at vesting and not be able to be deferred. Maybe also start looking at taxing stock comp above a certain threshold ($1 billion or so) with a surcharge, which is currently taxed at the very preferential capital gain rate (15%). Start looking at the stock comp and we can start solving this problem
exactly. people vote with their dollars. if you produce a good or service that people want you collect more dollars. it's theft if you try to steal someone's ideas and labor by overtaxing.
And the GOP wants to eliminate estate taxes. Consequently, billionaires would never have to pay any taxes on their gains in wealth. Their children would never have to pay taxes and their children ... After a few generations these people will be worth trillions, totally tax free forever.
Repeat after me. I don't care about new money. New money creates jobs. Makes life better for the consumer. I want the IRS to go after foundations. Non profits. Off shore tax havens. I am talking to you living off interest old money.
If wealth can be used as income then it should be taxed like income when used in that manner. And if wealth is not income then it is an asset; tax it like an asset. Not sure why owning stocks should be an exception. And why not tax stock purchases?
Tax evasion is theft. Tax avoidance is within one's right, and a smart thing to do. Tax avoidance are tax benefits that government gives you, if you're handling your money in a way that government wants. So, in a way you're trading a bit of freedom on your money to gain tax benefits.
You maybe right, it can't be proven one way or the other, but that's life. More money gives you more power. But these opportunities are open to everybody, if you plan right, and structure your assets the right way, you'll get the same tax cuts. There's no advantage that exists only for billionaires
It's like in "The Polity of Beasts": the animals have to labor day in and day out to make their "quotas" to the animals they elected to be their leaders. Boy oh boy does that book tell it like it is!
I want to see full list of billionaires who haven’t paid taxes is there a link which covers all the wealthy peoples income and taxes what they have paid ?
The 10 year yield is down, the dollar down, oil slightly up, gold flat. Prefect conditions for the market to rally and the banksters are dumping the market. Why?
So as a middle class person who has a 401K, I cannot get a loan from my bank and use my 401K as collateral for a very low interest rate loan. It is only if I am upper management or CEO in a company that I can get loan. Is that correct ??? (Sorry I am naiive about tax laws & how they work. This vid is also little over my head, but I want to understand what is going on.)
Middle class working Americans come up short and bear the brunt of taxation, audits & inflation. Stimulus packages only increased the wealth top 3% over the last year.
Could you tell the IRS to also have an investigation on who amended my taxes without telling me and who changed my birthday in the Colorado unemployment could you have them put an investigation out for that too and who's trying to say that I was a lobbyist because there's a whole bunch of stuff in my email about Wisconsin I've never been to Wisconsin before I don't even know anybody don't they make cheese. I have no idea about Wisconsin and I don't even know what a lobbyist is apparently I'm some sort of government person that I have no idea cuz I've never been sworn in I've never had any government positions in my life I worked at the Federal trade center in Lakewood vacuuming working for Sanchez porters. And I'm not from Mexico I'm a Puerto Rican American number one been to California for 5 months when I was five so I don't live there never been to Texas ever. Never been overseas. I'm a homebody I don't leave the house so I got anxiety after all this who wants to leave the house who knows what will happen to me I can't I'm not even safe at home who knows with this rigged house that I live in from Malvern who knows I'm just here..
The capital gains rate is meaningless because these billionaires rarely sell. The answer is either: tax capital gains, yearly, whether you sell or not (OR) a 3% yearly wealth tax on anyone worth more than $10 million.
@@thewolfdoctor761 I'm leaning towards a yearly marginal wealth tax. if your unrealized capital gains for the year are higher than the median income, your increase in net worth for the year is taxed at the median income tax rate + the % over the median income.
Think about it what did they put me on broadcast for education purpose yeah right it was so that they could drive me insane by doing bad things to me so that I would look bad and that I would look like I'm the bad guy.. think about it why did they do this to me they did this to me so that they could have a plan they should have picked somebody else that is not an inspector gadget because I know who I am and I only researched what was happening to me anything else that they're trying to tell you it was planted and you can see that it was going to be planted in the United States public agreement so they had access to my everything I don't even have a computer anymore who knows what's in there cuz they shut that down I don't have access to anything everything that I ever learned is because it's put in mytrouble for it I thought I was doing the right.since when do we get in trouble for doing the right thing in this planet I don't get it aren't we supposed to report these things why am I getting in trouble for it I don't get it I don't even know a lot of people I know like a handful of people why would I do have the stuff that they're trying to say I'm doing I have no reason to say anything other than I'm fighting for my life open your eyes I don't deserve this no American citizen deserves to be treated this way.
A increased sales tax will not begin to cover what we need...not even close. What percentage sales tax are you even talking about...90%??? LOL... Pay your taxes, stop looking for a free ride...
@@bmccarthy3333 Be condescending all you want but the IRS has failed to make the actual people that are avoiding taxes to pay their fair share... Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, I want change and the burden to be shifted to the people that can afford to carry it. Do you realize how much Americans consume??? I dont even have to research what kind of impact a rise in sales tax would have in government revenue to know it would be astronomical. States do it and make it work, the income federal tax isn't working... But go ahead, its the internet, be confrontational and edgy, Barb
I am sorry if we can fly to the bloody moon and land on mars, we can work out a way to solve this tax issue. Firstly, it is not right that these billionaires pay less as % than us mere mortals. Now what can be done about it. I am not moralising and saying Billionaires are bad people but we and the Government can work out a way to tax their wealth. Maybe not directly through a warren style proposal, but there must be a way by sitting down and talking about this is in an educated way. It doesn't need bloated comments on how bad people are for not paying tax because thats the system. But lets fix that system. It can be and has to be done.
@@harpoonmcfierce9697 I think it might be time to abolish income tax… raise sales tax, corporations and the rich buy a lot more than poor and middle class
@@harpoonmcfierce9697 no matter what is done with income tax, the rich find ways to dodge it, hell they make it look like they don’t make any income all together
So why these people they were owns and owner's of my SECRETS services in my response and RESPONSES that's is my big questions and big questionable to each of themselves
You really don't understand anything about taxes if you think this is inherent problem of progressive taxation. You could just as easily have a flat tax rate and have loopholes so that effective tax rates are not "flat".
@@SamGal4E Lol. I mean if "nominal tax rate" and "effective tax rate" are two entirely different things then yes a "flat tax" rate can still differ. But I'm sure with your ideology it would work out perfectly and there would be no loopholes at all... Suuuuure.
@@SamGal4E lmao, I didn't "infer" any particular ideology. But if you think "flat tax" is completely immune from loopholes that would shift effective tax rates away from the nominal "flat" amounts, then yes, then that ventures into ideology.
The rich stay rich by spending like the poor and investing without stopping then the poor stay poor by spending like the rich yet not investing like the rich
