There is a reason that most countries don’t tax total assets — and it’s not generosity. Rather, it is because such taxes are unproductive. As might be expected, wealth taxes lead to capital flight and brain drain; they cause a drop in savings and investment, as well as entrepreneurship. They have high administrative costs (involved in finding and valuing assets). In the end, wealth taxes tend to yield low revenue, while dragging down economic growth. But they do make for good politics, especially in election years; envy commands votes.
Category: Taxation
Posts about theft
A Lesson on Tariffs and Free Lunches From the American Revolution
The Townshend Acts of 1767 imposed these indirect taxes on imports to the American colonies, including glass, paint, lead, paper, and tea.
The colonists weren’t fooled. They knew these tariffs were another attempt by Parliament to raise revenue without their consent and exert control over the colonies. They knew who paid these duties.
Trump Advisor Admits Trade War Against China Failed
Trump’s tariffs—in addition to those since imposed by President Joe Biden—continue to raise prices for Americans. In fact, promising great economic results and not achieving them is key to Trump’s record: After announcing the $200 billion deal in the first place, he tweeted that “it will bring both the USA & China closer together in so many other ways.” And of course, Trump’s anti-trade rhetoric was based on the trade deficit between the U.S. and China, which increased as a result of his policies.
https://reason.com/2024/06/19/trump-advisor-admits-trade-war-against-china-failed/
New York and Vermont Seek to Impose a Retroactive Climate Tax
Residents in both New York and Vermont already pay over 30 percent more than the US average in residential electricity prices, and this legislation will not lower these costs to consumers. Climate superfunds are not a serious attempt to solve environmental challenges but rather a way to raise government revenue while unfairly punishing an entire industry.
https://www.cato.org/blog/new-york-vermont-seek-impose-retroactive-climate-tax
IRS Expansion Was Never about Reducing the Deficit
First, the Biden administration wanted to raise $400 billion over the next ten years with greater tax enforcement. Some Democrats in the press were talking about up to $1 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office has evaluated proposals for greater tax enforcement for over a decade and never found an estimate greater than $120 billion. Now it’s supposed to be some great victory that, over a year after the IRS expansion was passed into law, they’ve raised $500 million.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/irs-expansion-was-never-about-reducing-the-deficit/
The Coolidge Curve
Harding blasted a federal “financial orgy” but struggled to restrain it. Coolidge set about the task with relish. With his budget director, Herbert Lord, he set targets for spending cuts, and he developed tax cuts with Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon. He announced his tax reforms in December; tax exempt securities would lose their special status and tax rates would be cut. Coolidge, who had a moral aversion to high taxes, echoed Mellon’s argument that lower rates “will not greatly reduce the revenue from that source, and may in the future actually increase it” by stimulating economic growth.
Another Athlete Chooses a Low‐Tax State
Grant Williams left the Boston Celtics for the Dallas Mavericks, at least partly because of Massachusetts’ Millionaire’s Tax.
https://www.cato.org/blog/another-athlete-chooses-low-tax-state
Tax Exiles
In 1973, Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon which included the single ‘Money,’ on which Roger Waters snarled:
Money
Get back
I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack
‘Money,’ according to one critic, “deals with crass materialism.” But by the time Pink Floyd recorded The Wall in 1979, they did so in France and the United States because remaining in Britain would have incurred a massive tax bill.
Norway’s Wealth Tax Is Backfiring. Are Americans Paying Attention?
Norwegian lawmakers forgot this simple lesson, and now they can do little but watch as the wealth creators in their country depart, taking with them their capital, ingenuity, and taxable income.
Justice Gorsuch’s Dissent from Denial of Review in an Excessive Fines Clause Case
We have held that “[p]rotection against excessive punitive economic sanctions” is “‘fundamental'” and “‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.'” And all that would mean little if the government could evade constitutional scrutiny under the Clause’s terms by the simple expedient of fixing a “civil” label on the fines it imposes and declining to pursue any related “criminal” case.