I propose a simple 1% tax on wealth...

[Wounded Bear]

It's really pretty easy, almost as easy as the old joke about the simplified tax form that read: How much did you make last year? Send it in.

I propose that every corporation pay a 1% tax in cash to the IRS, based on their Annual Report to shareholders. Moneys should be remitted within 60 days of filing the Annual Report. You can exempt any company under $500 million or $1 billion in net worth to protect small businesses, but everybody else should pay. No deductions or exclusions necessary, that's pretty much already in the report.

Then do the Warren wealth tax to cover individuals as well.

We need to tax wealth as well as income. We'd easily raise hundreds of billions.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. That could work, if only someone would propose it.

[FBaggins]

2. Along with the constitutional amendment to make it legal?

Or if you prefer to pick nits… to get it past the current court.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Nits is about all you can pick with a proposal that kicks...

reality in its ass.

The simple fact is tjat the simpler and more reasonable a proposal is, the easier it is to shoot down by those against it for any reason.

The sad truth is that money types have far more reason and resorces to support their hoarding money than the rest have to stop them.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Curious as to where in the Constitution it says that taxing wealth is illegal...

[FBaggins]

8. Curious as to where in the Constitution it says that taxing wealth is legal...

The 16th Amendment was written for a reason.

[Wounded Bear]

9. Well, Article Two states rather unequivocally...

In Section 8, Clause 1:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises...

The 16th Amendment gives Congress the power to tax incomes. It doesn't mention "wealth."

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Presumably, laying taxes other than on income would require taxing wealth. Duties on imports and exports is a bit of a different matter.

[FBaggins]

11. Not nearly so clear as you might think

You have to ask yourself why anyone needed to write the 16th if Art I Sec 8 were so clear.

The problem was that Art I Sec II says that all "direct taxes" had to be apportioned equally between the states by population. The court very narrowly held that income and wealth taxes were unconstitutional unless they were split equally amongst the states by population.

From the key dissent:

When, therefore, this court adjudges, as it does now adjudge, that Congress cannot impose a duty or tax upon personal property, or upon income arising either from rents of real estate or from personal property, including invested personal property, bonds, stocks, and investments of all kinds, except by apportioning the sum to be so raised among the States according to population, it practically decides that, without an amendment of the Constitution—two-thirds of both Houses of Congress and three-fourths of the States concurring—such property and incomes can never be made to contribute to the support of the national government.

This led to the 16th Amendment, which cured the problem as it relates to income taxes. But nobody ever took care of wealth taxes.

Now... a different court could overturn Pollock. But would this court?

[jimfields33]

3. We have 492 individual billionaires in America

If we took half their fortune, we’d be able to run the country for quite a while. I say we do it.

[GoodRaisin]

10. No reason to stop at a billion.

Those with 500 million in assets wouldn’t be hurt so much by paying wealth tax either. Keep going until they are forced to sell an extra airplane or yacht and make that the cutoff. People don’t need to accumulate and hoard that much wealth for themselves anyway.

[JT45242]

4. "Small business" is a lot smaller than 500 million

If this will work, you need to go smaller.

As Eisenhower put it (I know sacrilege) -- if you tax companies on profits they will either pay employees more so that they can buy more goods or they will build bigger factories. Either way it helps working people.

If you want to say a small business is one with under 50 emplyees or worth less than 10 million to exempt. But when you are talking about only billion dollar companies, you are letting a lot of wealth off the hook.

At that size, people like Musk will just split their companies into a bunch of smaller ones that he still owns to avoid paying corporate taxes.

[Wounded Bear]

6. My proposal would certainly be open to negotiating the levels at which it works...

As for Eisenhower, not sacrilegious at all. Might have been the last sane repub president.

[DFW]

12. Presumably....

The proposal also includes a government rebate to companies that have a bad year and lose money. Right?