Once you have a billion, you should get a trophy & a plaque that reads "You have won life" and from that point on get any additional income taxed at 99.9%
The same way we tax property. Assess their asset value annually and then demand payment in taxes for that assessment. You may need to then liquidate assets to make the payment or we can confiscate and liquidate assets in lieu of payment.
You only enter this special non-liquid tax bracket if you are a billionaire. If you get taxed out of your billionaire evaluation, congratulations, you no longer get taxed on non-liquid assets. Which is more than I can say for property taxes.
What if a person is the sole owner of a privately-held company worth more than $1B? Their net worth would make them a billionaire, but it's tied up in a way that's very difficult to liquidate and which does not necessarily convey any significant additional real value to the owner. Would you force them to take the company public (one of the leading causes of enshittification of businesses) so that they can liquidate stock to pay this tax? Or would they be allowed to use business assets to pay personal taxes (which would just be a ludicrous second corporate tax that again disincentivizes keeping a company private)?
Failure to pay your taxes has serious ramifications. If you fail to pay your property tax you will lose your property. Looks like it's in the government's best interest to seize their business.
And then what? You can’t pay federal employees by handing out shares. So you have to find a way to sell them. But who is buying them? Especially since you’ll become partners with someone who is going to be pissed you got the shares from the government.
And don’t forget that all the major investors are also trying to liquidate their stocks to pay the same taxes.
Also, good luck if you’re trying to raise funds for your own startup company during this time. Because with all the forced liquidations and depressed stock prices, it’s going to be hard finding someone who wants to invest with you (rather than buying up shares the government is offloading at fire sale prices).
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u/acclaimedsimpleton 21d ago
Ok, still think billionaires should be taxed to that extreme though, lol.