I agree Warren’s idea for a wealth tax is dead in the water.

I was not aware Trump had a wealth tax idea.

The direct tax you are speaking of is for real estate – it is a property tax.

An income tax or wealth tax would be an indirect tax, not a direct tax. That is why they needed the 16th amendment, which is limited to income and doesn’t extend to wealth.

Also, I disagree about the estate tax, at least as to cash. Lets say you have 10,000,000 in cash in your savings account and die and give it to your two children. That 10,000,000 was wealth which you were taxed on when it was income during your life, and which is the left over is accumulated savings after taxes. So cash has been taxed during the life of the person who died. Any estate over 5.8 million has to pay an estate tax, so a little less than 1/2 of my 10,000,000 example is taxed again when your kids inherit (leaving spouse out of it for simplicity). The state will get its pound of flesh also.

You probably have a point about real estate and stock, because I think those assets get a stepped up basis upon death (not an expert in wills and estates).

Only the super wealthy pay an estate tax, and most of them can avoid it. For example, Gates and Buffet gave billions and billions to charity (not taxed). I think there are other tax dodges in place for the super wealth also.

By the way – the only reason the estate tax even works is that the wealth of the dying person becomes income to the beneficiaries – so it falls under the 16th amendment. But taxing the wealth during the life of the earner doesn’t work, because the after taxed accumulation isn’t income, it is what is left over after the income was taxed in prior years.

The United States Constitution prohibits any federal direct tax on asset holdings unless the revenue collected is apportioned among the states on the basis of their population.

So no change absolutely required, but it won’t happen. Look at the shrinkage of the inheritance tax, which primarily targets money that was never taxed in the first place.

So both Warren’s and Trump’s idea for a wealth tax are probably dead in the water.

Yes, wealth is accumulated income from prior years which was previously taxed.

An example. The IRS cannot make you pay taxes AGAIN on your income from 2017 in tax year 2018. You already paid your 2017 taxes, and you have zero 2017 income in 2018. To try to retroactively make you pay taxes on income from before the current tax year is an ex post facto law, which is prohibited by Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution.

So wealth is accumulated income left over after you have paid your taxes in the current tax year on the income you received in that tax year, and is added to your savings from prior tax years. Wealth is not income in the next tax year (because you didn’t receive it in the next tax year, you received it in prior tax years) and therefore it cannot be taxed by the Federal Government because it is not income.

Hope that helps.

Elizabeth Warren’s idea is doomed to failure, absent a change to the constitution.

“Wealth is NOT income.”

But accumulation of wealth by rent seeking involves income.

A rare moment of agreement. The super rich need to pay more tax – they avoid way, way too much. Clamping down on offshore is the way to go rather than starting a hard-to-win fight over the 16th Amendment.

I see a major problem with this idea. It is not constitutional to tax wealth.

The 16th amendment allows only for taxing income.

Wealth is NOT income.

Wealth is what is left over from previously taxed income.

I hope we see some discussion of this major problem.

Sure – it could be fixed by amending the constitution – but that is very very hard to do.

Did I say vile bag of shite already?

I would suggest fuckknuckle as a term that you could be looking for.

Yes, doesn’t he owe her a million dollars? Oh, wait, he denies having made that bet…

Did I say vile bag of shite already?

also note his complete inability to back up his earlier assertion, and his continued lack of understanding of the test results.

For the right understanding isn’t important, as long as you can deny and misdirect with enough strength.

He’s reprising his standard tactic of trying to delegitimise a political opponent in the most unpleasant, distracting way possible.

The net result, at least for me, is to be amazed anew at what a completely vile bag of shit Trump really is.