(12-21-2024, 10:00 AM)TDOSS Wrote:

(12-21-2024, 09:27 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: Why Europe Axed Its Wealth Taxes | Cato Institute

More than a dozen European countries used to have wealth taxes, but nearly all of these countries repealed them, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. Wealth taxes survive only in Norway, Spain, and Switzerland.

Yet for little revenue, wealth taxes are difficult to administer and enforce. They may require taxpayers to report the values of financial securities, homes, furniture, artwork, jewelry, antiques, vehicles, boats, pension rights, family businesses, farm assets, land, intellectual property, and much else. But owners do not know the market values of many assets, and values change over time, so costly wealth-tax compliance would only make accountants wealthy.

You claimed wealth taxes cannot be implemented. I showed they not only can but have been in many countries. You did not respond to those facts, you tried to change the topic to there being some challenges and some countries repealing the taxes. 

That's not honest discussion.

Your source also looks wrong. Mine said some countries had moved to wealth taxes on certain types of wealth; your source claims they abolished the tax entirely. Your claim was that a wealth tax isn't practical to have. I showed countries have it (and many more than you listed). Discussing problems with the tax is another topic. The US could have a wealth tax, and it's not socialism, another point you did not respond to.

Some states have taxes on investments that are closer to being a wealth tax.  But they are small and the trend is to repealing them. The juice is barely worth the squeeze.

I suppose if there was a government that wanted to get a huge share of its revenue from such a tax they might figure out the details and make it work. It just seems unlikely. 

There's also the question of if the federal government has the authority to tax something other than income without apportionment among the states.  

We are going to be an income tax based federal government until the next revolution, may it never come.  The game is going to continue to be about categories of income, brackets, marginal rates, etc.

Maybe one day the average message board commenter will understand how marginal rates work, but I digress.

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