• ccunning@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    This is similar to getting rid of income tax and replacing it with higher sales taxes. Tariffs will only affect the portion of your income that goes to purchases.

    Guess which people spend the majority of their income, percentage-wise, on purchases? That’s right! Not billionaires.

    This is not surprising at all.

    • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Income tax is paid by the working class. Billionaires don’t have “earned income” (because they don’t have jobs) so they don’t pay income tax. They make money through investments.

      • spatialdestiny@lemmy.one
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        5 days ago

        If Elon musk sells a billion in stock because he needs cash to buy a company, say like Twitter, isn’t that income tax? When an investment is realized, isn’t that also income? I know that a lot of the rich use assets as collateral to borrow instead of ‘realizing’ it, but to say the rich aren’t affected by income tax isn’t entirely true.

        • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          No, when someone like Musk sells their investments it’s not taxed as regular income, it’s taxed as “capital gains.” The capital gains tax rate is lower than the income tax rate, and can be as low as 0%. Also, only the net profit (if there is any) is taxed. Unlike income, where it’s all taxed and the lowest rate is 10%.

          Someone like Musk can sell a billion USD of stock and not have to pay any tax on it by selling a mix of shares that lost money and made money.