Comment by bryanlarsen
4 hours ago
Top 10% is the upper middle class, not the ultra rich. A successful surgeon making $1M per year is paying well over 40% a year in taxes, while Bezos is paying 1%.
4 hours ago
Top 10% is the upper middle class, not the ultra rich. A successful surgeon making $1M per year is paying well over 40% a year in taxes, while Bezos is paying 1%.
The top 10% is not even upper middle class in high COL areas.
$155k is a top 10% income.
Do you have the data for that? I was wondering about tax paid (as dollars not effective rate- I know effective tends to me lower for HNW individuals due to accountants and other financial professionals they can afford).
> I thought looking at the aggregates that the top 10% pay something like 1/3rd of all income/cap gain taxes.
If we're bringing receipts, how about you start? Do you have the data for this initial statement of yours?
Here is one source (with 2022 data):
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-in...
...of course that doesn't include payroll taxes (Social Security).
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This is close enough (posted here by another).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185123
Bezos pays 40% too.
His assets are not income. Just like your assets are not taxed.
Ok, but he does that loan-against-assets hack!
Well the fact is that those loans eventually need to be paid, so at some point he will pay that 40% (unless he does the step-up basis hack when he dies)
Ok, but he should be paying annually like everyone else!
Well, technically he is, his assets, the company Amazon, pays a lot of taxes annually. The government views Amazon as a money printer, states get their sales taxes, and the federal government gets their income taxes. All of which originate with Amazon.
All of which is to say, that the uppe-middle/upper-class, the successful surgeon, is the one that needs to be paying more taxes to equilibriate society.
I want to see Bezos have all of his assets seized, and distributed to human beings instead of held onto like the goblin he is. I don't care about your defense of him. He should not be on the same planet as me.
If you can convince people that Amazon is a bad value proposition (i.e. stop giving amazon money for stuff), then you will effectively accomplish that.
But you probably couldn't even count the number of people with Prime subscriptions that show up to an "Eat the 1%!" march...
"It's just so convenient!"
> unless he does the step-up basis hack when he dies
I'm sure we can count that as a given.
> The government views Amazon as a money printer, states get their sales taxes, and the federal government gets their income taxes.
Except when states fall all over themselves to give Amazon a massive tax break to build their second HQ.
>I'm sure we can count that as a given.
It's very unlikely, he has pledged to give away most of his wealth in his lifetime, but there are a variety of factors that will always add space for detractors to make fair points. Bill Gates is still worth billions despite being an endless waterfall of charity money for decades.
Either way, the step-up thing is way way way more common in the upper class, where people with ~$24M want their kids to get $6M each. These people are nobodies with no public image, and light years away from "Billionaire Class" status.
>Except when states fall all over themselves to give Amazon a massive tax break to build their second HQ.
All the employees will pay income tax, and they will mostly spend their money in the state, generating sales tax. Then there is the second order effect of businesses that pop-up to feed off the money that the employees make.
What's often missed, and never explained, is that the government loves businesses, because businesses convert people into tax revenue, on almost all levels. Don't miss that.
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