zlacker

> Taxing unrealized gains will be extremely complex, and given that they aren't allowing us to deduct unrealized losses its a pretty shitty setup for the taxpayer.

I pay taxes on the unrealized gains of my house appreciating in value over the years.

I'm not arguing one way or the other about whether various wealth tax ideas are good. But, I don't believe that the concept is as infeasible as some are making it out to be when it's been happening with property taxes for a very long time.

>>ragnes+(OP)
I pay taxes on the unrealized gains of my house appreciating in value over the years.

You pay taxes on the assessed value of your house. It doesn't matter what you paid for it, or how much equity you have in it. It's more of a use tax than a capital gains or wealth tax.

>>orange+g6
That's a fair point. It's definitely pretty different from an unrealized capital gain because, like you said, it's not about your net gain or loss on the house. But, I'd still say that it's practically similar enough to a wealth tax precisely because it's a tax based only on the current value of the thing that I own.

Also, just to add to the above discussion, it's even worse in practice than a tax on unrealized gains because I'll have to pay the same amount of tax every year if my house stays the same value. If it were a tax on the unrealized "gains" of my house, I'd pay $0 if it stayed the same value. And if the value of my house decreases, I'll still have to pay more than $0 in property tax, whereas a capital loss would mean I would pay at most $0.

So, I think I still stand by my sentiment that property taxes are more burdensome than a tax on unrealized capital gains.

>>ragnes+(OP)
Property taxes exist because we want to tax externalities like land use. Taxing fake wealth because you own a company and some VC assigns it a valuation is insane.

Why should you dilute your ownership share just because of some arbitrary number?

>>VirusN+BA
I'd argue that property taxes exist because we still live in a system resembling the feudal system we evolved from, and governments believe it is their right to tax our property to pay for their projects.

>>_heimd+lH
Who--other than "governments"--decided that its "your" property and that you somehow deserve monopoly rights to a piece of the planet that you didn't create?

>>VirusN+BA
> Taxing fake wealth because you own a company > [...] > Why should you dilute your ownership share

So... is owning piece of a productive company "fake wealth"? Is it fake when you can leverage that valuation to have access to more credit and use that to buy real stuff (like property...)?