Comment by nebula8804

Comment by nebula8804 5 days ago

I found it pretty funny when Mayor Mamdani of NYC pointed out that the people opposing him spent more money trying to stop him being elected than they would end up paying in increased taxes. It really is a game to those people. They can't bear to give up one cent or one ounce of control.

Another funny story was that some substack writer (whom I forget sorry) noticed that Bill Ackman subscribed to their substack and used a 30% off coupon ha ha.

NickC25 5 days ago

Jeff Bezos in FY 2024 filed for, and received, a $2k child tax credit.

While the company he was the founder of passed over a trillion dollars in market cap.

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frutiger 5 days ago

The child tax credit starts tapering off if your adjusted gross income is more than $200k single ($400k joint). If Bezos is reporting less than that due to other deductions then that’s truly impressive.

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- throwaway173738 5 days ago
  
  It’s really simple. Loans don’t count as income so you use your stock to get guaranteed loans. And you don’t take most of your income on a W2 you take it in stock.
  
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  frutiger 4 days ago
  
  I know. I would still be impressed if Bezos’s w-2 income was below $400k.
  Edit: also you need to pay the loan back, and the income to pay it back is taxable. You can die with an outstanding loan, but i’m sure bezos lenders will structure the loan to make sure they get most of their money back.
  
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lmm 5 days ago

If it's a good tax credit, incentivising something society wants to incentivise, then everyone it applies to should get it; that helps social cohesion. If you make billionaires ineligible for tax credits they'll oppose them (and why shouldn't they?)

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- davkan 5 days ago
  
  I’m all for universal benefits and doing away with means testing but doing so without fixing our regressive tax system it truly is just a gift to the wealthy.
  
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  lmm 5 days ago
  
  It's not. Fixing the tax system is a good idea that I'm all in favour of, but universalising benefits and eliminating means testing is a good idea even if we don't wait to do that first.
  
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  davkan 4 days ago
  
  You are correct
  
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- NickC25 5 days ago
  
  >then everyone it applies to should get it; that helps social cohesion
  You know what else helps social cohesion?
  One person NOT being able to effectively rig the economic and political landscape because they were outsized beneficiaries of it.
  You know what also helps social cohesion?
  Someone who realizes that they've got more than enough money, and realizes that they don't have a life-or-death need for more, and is happy to pay their taxes.
  >(and why shouldn't they?)
  Because they've literally got billions of dollars, and the tax credit system was not designed with extreme outliers in mind. "Oh jeeze, I'm just a billionaire, woe is me, I'm not eligible for a $2k tax refund, the world will end".
  
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  lmm 4 days ago
  
  > You know what also helps social cohesion?
  > Someone who realizes that they've got more than enough money, and realizes that they don't have a life-or-death need for more, and is happy to pay their taxes.
  Sure. And the best way to make that happen is to make a tax system that feels fair to everyone.
  > Because they've literally got billions of dollars, and the tax credit system was not designed with extreme outliers in mind. "Oh jeeze, I'm just a billionaire, woe is me, I'm not eligible for a $2k tax refund, the world will end".
  Why shouldn't they be eligible? If we think giving $2k to those who have children is in the public interest (and I do!), it's still in the public interest when it's a billionaire.
  
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