I keep hearing people say "tax the rich" but how do the rich not pay taxes? (sorry for the dumb question, I don't know much about this)

@Elessar


You got any good book recommendations? 👀

I'm legit trying to get educated about this because I don't remember much from school all those years ago 😬

@BlueVeins I never really understood the whole living of the loan they take out or "good debt" thing that I've heard rich people talk about

I mean, how is that different from the not-rich being in debt?
And how can debt ever be good? debt sucks 😖

@Fishy Rich people pay much less for their debt for completely legitimate reasons, believe it or not. A rich fuck like Bezos is very unlikely to default on their debt because their money is managed carefully, they have more diverse streams of income, they have a ton of resources at their disposal, and they have that collateral if all else fails. For someone like you and me, we might default on our debt if we lose our jobs or get hit by a car.

Thus, it's a lot harder to persuade people to lend to us than to Elon Musk, and we accomplish this by offering said lender more money -- AKA interest.

@BlueVeins yeah, I guess that makes a little more sense...

Still got a lot of learning to do in this area tho

I'm total noob lol 😂

Yeah, it seems unfair,

But I'm trying to figure out how they actually do that

Before now, I've never even heard the term funnelled and offshore bank account 😅

@NerdyPotato

isnt that an investment thing tho?
Not necessarily a rich thing?


I mean like, if that's the case, wouldn't it make more sense to say "there should be higher investment taxes"

Instead of "tax the rich"?

@Fishy only the rich can afford to invest and what else are you going to do with more money than you can spend on things you use? The two are pretty much synonymous.

@NerdyPotato yeah I'm still a noob, ngl

I've never invested in anything big or small,

So I don't know how much it takes to invest in things 😅

I'm just learning n stuff

@Sepia But what are the loopholes?

@Fishy for people who does it for them to lessen the taxes… they pay the OIC-Officer in charge for personal Service (under the table) trans. They get cleared easily.

@Fishy Just Google, you'll find plentiful of information

https://www.propublica.org/series/the-secret-irs-files

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/04/02/more-than-50-major-us-corporations-including-nike-and-fedex-paid-no-federal-taxes-last-year/

https://www.businessinsider.com/american-billionaires-tax-avoidance-income-wealth-borrow-money-propublica-2021-6?r=US&IR=T

@Elessar don't assume things, 🤷🏽‍♂️ you aren't even from here. One, you have no idea how much I own or If I'm rich. Two, you just European who thinks they know everything about the USA from bias articles. Most of those billionaires you see are paying the minimum 33 percent of taxes. There's a reason why alot of wealthy people are leaving the USA and are moving to Asia.

@empanadas Lol, tax rates are numbers, specifically numbers that are publicly available, there's no need for assumptions, for articles that may be biased or not, and last but not least my geographical collocation is absolutely irrelevant when it comes to comparing percentages. The "you don't live here therefore you can't point out our system's fallacies" argument is purely deflective, as math isn't an opinion and doesn't recognize national borders. Besides, I could similarly say you're making assumptions too, for instance you couldn't exclude I may have experience running a business (and, by extension, filling tax returns) in both continents.

Also, ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations reliance on tax havens, just as you pointed out yourself by mentioning escapades to Asia, just like the so called "fiscal optimization", happens in virtually every country they operate in, even if the geographical gatekeeping was valid I'd be just as entitled at pointing it out as virtually anyone else living and paying (percentually higher) taxes in any of such countries.