@julietOscarEcho
@sh.itjust.worksThis is how... EVERYTHING works... Income tax brackets, 401k limits. I thought this was pretty obvious, from each according their ability and all.
They didn't set out their whole tax platform for their presidential bid friend. We can trivially blow down your straw man with a primary residence exemption or, you know, tax brackets.
Realization is the establishment of value not sale for cash (it just happens that the most convenient establishment of value for any non-fungible asset is sale). There are already some realization events that don't have associated cash flows, to do with overseas assets or certain financial instruments. Ordinary people don't need to worry about this stuff, it's not for them, and if you're rich you can trivially figure out the cash flow issue.
But capital gains avoiding tax for the life of a wealthy person who lives off collateral zed borrowing, then being stepped up in basis for their heirs is just embarrassing for the US.
This argument applies to my wages too if I elect not to be paid in USD. Are you arguing that, say, Bitcoin income should be untaxable just because it could depreciate relative to the USD tax liability it generates.
This is both a terrible strawman of advocates for this type of tax reform and a misrepresentation of what realization events are in the US tax code.
Sure "borrowing in assets does not make you wealthier" but it does provide an excellent basis for establishing increases in wealth that have already happened. Realization is a tool to avoid arguments and uncertainty around valuation, not a requirement that taxpayers have cash in a checking account to pay their liabilities. Posting collateral for borrowing inherently involves valuation so could very easily be made a realization event, it fits very neatly into existing law.
It may be a political impossibility but your dismissal doesn't suggest you've really thought about it.
Also "taxing everybody on income at the beginning of the year and then telling them tough luck if they get fired and never get that income". As someone in a high tax bracket (and state FML) who left the country mid tax year, bless you for thinking this doesn't happen.
My kid screams "un-let go" at me while balancing perfectly well. She understands, she does not accept.
For almost the first year I lived there I paid rent in person by cheque to a management company office. It was a midtown manhatten apartment in a nice ish building less than a decade ago. They also forgot to cash the bankers draft I had written up for my deposit (five fucking figures that they just didn't notice for years). Real Estate has a surprising number of absolute clowns still for some reason. I guess because it's been easy money for asset owners so they chaff wasn't being squeezed out.
Perfect example! Quarks taking their name from finnegans wake! Sure, science is more than poetry, but the poetry of it is pretty important to scientific culture (and therefore to making progress).
Sorry to disappoint you. Most scientists love poetry. People that can express the principles of our fields beautifully are our heroes. Watch talks by eminent scientists: they are more often than not exceptional communicators as well as thinkers.