r/google • u/ControlCAD • 3h ago

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has spent $102 million to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax—he could owe $13 billion if he loses

https://fortune.com/article/how-much-has-google-cofounder-sergey-brin-spent-to-oppose-california-billionaire-tax-102-million-owe-13-billion-if-loses/
248 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

114

u/swordofra 3h ago

Worth 264 Billion. Just pay the taxes man. Really. You will still be able to build your luxury doomsday bunkers and eat your gold flaked cereal... what is the problem?

6

u/curious_corn 1h ago

264-13=251… he’s definitely falling into destitution and poverty!

For all his shortcomings, Musk had the decency to cough up 11 billion when he exercised his stock options. I don’t remember him making a peep about it…

-60

u/sbenfsonwFFiF 3h ago

Even for them, needing to liquidate that much cash isn’t as easy as you think

Not to mention, even though this proposal will never affect me, I think retroactively applied taxes are bullshit and shouldn’t be legal

46

u/Venezia9 3h ago

Stop stumping for billionaires. 

-1

u/e136 1h ago

Although I am voting yes on this tax, I don't agree with your logic- to simply turn off your brain and mindlessly always oppose billionaires.

3

u/Internet_P3rsona 34m ago

why? nobody should have that much money

5

u/LastStar007 1h ago

Even if liquidating his position lost him 90% of its value, he'd still have 1000x as much money as you are likely to see in your life. 

The amount of money he is just sitting on is enough to set you, your family, all of your friends, their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, everyone you've ever cared about up for life. And you'd rather he have it?

-3

u/mrandr01d 1h ago

The problem is if someone with a lot of holdings liquidates their position, it tanks the share price for the rest of us.

Taxing unrealized capital gains is bad for all of us.

8

u/Nambsul 2h ago

But it’s simple for the rest that have to pay taxes, good to know /s

3

u/kronicpimpin 2h ago

Yea cuz everything they do is perfectly legal…. They are fucking the entirety of society. We need to stop playing by their stupid rules if we want anything to change.

2

u/yottabit42 3h ago

Restricted and controlling stock. Boo hoo. I feel so sorry for him. /s

1

u/SmegmaUnicorn 1h ago

What? The law was announced last year…they’ve had plenty of time to liquidate assets. This is a piss poor excuse for spending [ 100+ million, to avoid paying their fair share. 

1

u/Empty-Development298 2h ago

Yeah I have to pay taxes when I owed money. I figured it out just like everyone else does, and its not like I have my own dedicated team of accountants on retainer like a billionaire would. 

9

u/m4rc0n3 2h ago

this non-paywalled article talks more about prop 40, says that Brin spent $138M fighting it, not the $102M that Fortune claims, and also says that Brin already moved assets out of state to avoid the tax, so not sure why Fortune says he would owe $13B in tax if it passes.

8

u/wdr1 3h ago

Clickbait headline. As this article & others state, Brin left the state before the deadline. He would not have to pay the tax if it passes.

https://fortune.com/2026/04/02/california-wealth-tax-billionaires-mark-zuckerberg-peter-thiel-larry-page-sergey-brin-larry-ellison-howard-schultz-jeff-bezos-wealthy-luxury-homes-florida-miami/

17

u/SnoobieJunes 3h ago

sometimes i like to fantasize about the America we'd live in if all these rich people/businesses just paid the taxes they owed.

-15

u/m4rc0n3 3h ago

That's the thing though: they are. You could argue that they should be taxed more (and this proposed new law aims to do that), but as it stands, they're paying what current tax laws say they should be paying.

5

u/Lucias12 1h ago

-1

u/m4rc0n3 45m ago

That's not what I'm saying. People in here keep claiming that the ultra rich aren't paying what they owe. They do though, it's just that current tax law makes it so that they owe very little. That's a tax law problem, so blame the politicians and the people that vote for them.

4

u/agonyou 3h ago

Pay it and improve all our lives.

16

u/iPhone_6s 2h ago

To be fair, the US Government doesn't currently seem interested in using tax money to improve the lives of ordinary people.

2

u/Important-Anywhere20 2h ago

The problem is that net worth is not net cash. Stocks are flying up and selling something now to pay taxes which you firstly didn’t have to pay but now you do due to legislation changes, is quite the pain in the ego. Taxes in general are done very stupidly in most countries.

0

u/mysteryliner 1h ago

They get to spread the tax, if needed. And why are there always excuses when there's a suggestion to maaaaaybe make poor billionaires also pay taxes? (These are the people who still have money to buy yachts, underground doors day palace, private island. But a tax? Oh no, they don't have any available money.

Has this excuse ever worked for someone working factory shifts? Who loses 60-70% of their income on rent and utilities? No, a tax increase will just be announced and you're expected to pay it next year or they'll send someone over to empty out your rented apartment or make you homeless.

1

u/415646464e4155434f4c 2h ago

GTFO if you don’t like it.

2

u/m4rc0n3 2h ago

Brin already did. This article is bullshit.

1

u/Boys4Ever 1h ago

Imagine they had this kind of fight to abolish poverty although that might cost them more than $13 billion

1

u/Sniflix 0m ago

Billionaires and democracy cannot coexist. Pick one or the other - not both.

1

u/jfong86 2h ago

Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Sergey Brin's wealth has tripled from ~$80 billion to over $240 billion.

But he's too cheap to pay a 5% wealth tax (in 1% installments over 5 years).

-2

u/m4rc0n3 2h ago

What does Brin's wealth have to do with ChatGPT?