Where does your idea that “the middle class pays pretty much all the taxes in the US” come from?
As far as I can tell, the top 1% of earners pay 42.3% of income taxes and earn 22.2% of income. The average 1%-er makes 1.76 million dollars a year. They pay as a group approximately 722 billion dollars annually in income taxes [1]. Then factor in estate taxes and corporate taxes which are disproportionately ultimately borne by the very rich. Then factor in payroll taxes, which are 50% paid by companies. The top 1% bears an incredibly large portion of the national tax burden, as I see it. One could argue it should be more, but I don’t see the argument that the middle class pays “pretty much all the taxes”.
As for a wealth tax, a lot of wealth isn’t in a liquid form. Would you see it forcibly liquidated or would you like the government to have substantial holdings in US companies?
Personally I think there are much more fruitful ways to go about addressing inequality than the progressive “eat the rich” agenda.
The list goes on and on. Once you have enough money you use staff lawyers at your company to pay nothing taxes either for your company or for yourself.
I am highly sceptical of this accounting. Many properties, in say, London, are owned through shell corporations in secretive jurisdictions.
My landlord is in a tax heaven. It's a corporation and there is no way for me to know who own it! What if I am paying rent to a war criminal? How do they account for this?
But let's look at a simpler situation - say you own a company, company let's out apartments, the rent is used to buy new apartments -> if you time purchases of new property well, there is never a profit to tax, corporation tax is zero. If I never take money out, but just grow my net worth, then my personal tax is zero too. So my net worth can keep growing forever, without ever paying tax.
You only ever pay tax on the small amount of money you take out of the company for living expenses, like food.
As far as I can tell, the top 1% of earners pay 42.3% of income taxes and earn 22.2% of income. The average 1%-er makes 1.76 million dollars a year. They pay as a group approximately 722 billion dollars annually in income taxes [1]. Then factor in estate taxes and corporate taxes which are disproportionately ultimately borne by the very rich. Then factor in payroll taxes, which are 50% paid by companies. The top 1% bears an incredibly large portion of the national tax burden, as I see it. One could argue it should be more, but I don’t see the argument that the middle class pays “pretty much all the taxes”.
As for a wealth tax, a lot of wealth isn’t in a liquid form. Would you see it forcibly liquidated or would you like the government to have substantial holdings in US companies?
Personally I think there are much more fruitful ways to go about addressing inequality than the progressive “eat the rich” agenda.
[1]: https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income...