The idea of paying tax on unrealized gain would destroy economic growth if implemented.Įxcept if you open an investment account with a random brokerage service, you pay tax on the net gains each year. I just don't think taxing unrealized stock is practical or logical, and there is probably more low-hanging fruit that would be easier to get passed into law. I can support arguments that: the top marginal rate should be higher, capital gains rates could be higher for higher income levels, have an excise tax on luxury items like yachts or aircraft, and we should figure out ways to eliminate scenarios where individuals (especially uber rich) are paying zero, or very low, taxes. I do agree that he should be paying more taxes in other ways.
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So in the broadest (and legal) sense, it looks like he paid his "fair share" on these specific stock transactions. No special treatment, and that's why it was $11B in taxes. So for these specific actions, it looks like he paid the same way that anyone else with smaller dollar transactions would pay. If you read the CNN article that was linked, most of the shares Musk sold were taxed as regular income (at the highest marginal rate), others were taxed as long-term capital gains. But I think you're arguing a different topic. I don't disagree with the points you make. If you are diversified enough (all billionaires are), the gov safety net is like 1 inch under you. Twice in the 21st century, the gov has shown that it will spend any amount of money and even print more money to prevent and reverse any significant losses in the stock market. The reimbursement is not direct to the person, rather it is to the stock market in general.
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He considers himself a genius for buying during these times, knowing any loss he sustains for a few days on that new stock will also be pumped right back up with the rest of it. Whenever there is a significant downturn in the stock market, the government will quickly mobilize hundreds of billions or even a trillion dollars to make it go back up as fast as physically possible in order to return Warren Buffet's net worth to it's previous high. 0% inteterest loans that will explicitly get forgiven. This is an ok article about how it works. Federal "investment" in the trillions after a downturn to restore upward growth of the DOW (juice the stockmarket to "make the line go up").
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Your billions in Delta, Nike, etc stock just went down 20%? The gov will literally just hand over money to those companies and your stock's value returns.Ģ. The massive bailouts of publicly trade companies and banks. They already reimburse losses in a (only-slightly) indirect way.ġ. I'm not an accountant, so I'm not sure what you're referring to.