The billionaire power grab is real. And it’s working.

A percentage of what? 1% of wealth compared to 1% of income? WTF is this nonsense?

This is all false.

I’m going to need some really legit sources to convince me otherwise.

I looked up the Bezos claim and this is the bullshit I found…. what a fucking shitshow of twisted logic:

*From 2006-2018, Jeff Bezos saw a wealth increase of $127 billion, according to Forbes, but he only reported a total income of $6.5 billion. He paid $1.4 billion in federal taxes on that amount, which, while still a massive number, accounts for only a 1.1% true tax rate. Even comparing Bezos’ $1.4 billion in taxes paid to the $6.5 billion he reported as his income, he still only paid taxes in the 21.5% bracket. One of the years Bezos paid $0 in federal income taxes, 2007, Amazon’s stock more than doubled, causing his wealth to jump $3.8 billion.*

What the fuck is a “true tax rate”? They are talking about taxation vs wealth, which is the dumbest fucking argument that keeps being regurgitated.

And no, he didn’t pay “in the 21.5% bracket”…. he paid an effective rate of 21.5%. BIG difference. My assumption is that most of his income was long term capital gains.

I paid an effective rate of 27% on 387k of earnings last year. None of my earnings were capital gains, though.

Obviously taxes on businesses – and subsequently, on long-term ownership of billions of dollars in company stock – have led to a serious wealth imbalance, but continuing to portray taxes as a percentage of net worth or total revenue is hugely disingenuous.

… People do know there’s a difference between income tax, corporate tax and capital gains tax right?

The nurse isn’t paying America’s top rate. However she is being paid for her hours worked. That is income tax.

Bezos however doesn’t get paid based on his work. His net worth rises with the value of his investments. He doesn’t have an income which is why his income tax would be effectively 1%. You can’t tax his investments until he withdraws the money which he won’t do. He’ll take a loan leveraging a percentage of his stocks and pay it back by trading stocks to find one at a loss that would allow him to label it a loss when he sells so the tax is less.

Then Netflix is a corporation. However corporations have their own ways to avoid taxes. The US government heavily reduces corporate taxes for job creation. Mostly due to if they make more jobs that’s more income tax. Hence Netflix going on hiring sprees to secure tax cuts.

Another misleading take.

Workers get taxed higher because what are they going to do – uproot their family and move country?

Capital is much easier to move, so it is not taxed as much to keep it from fleeing.

In the end it is all about power, people get taxed as much as they can take, the rich have less tolerance because they are mobile and so is their capital.

This is a completely foolish comparison all around.

The doctor’s top marginal rate is being compared to Bezos’s likely tax as a % of his overall wealth. Bezo’s top marginal rate was 37%, and based on what information I can gather his effective tax rate is about 23%…which only slightly below the average for the top earners (25%)…so this idea that Bezos is paying “less than the doctor” is ridiculous.

I’m assuming that the profit number of Netflix being used is their GAAP based profit amount, which is not the same thing as their taxable income. Their average GAAP operating income is about $5.8B, and their GAAP income tax expense is about $765M, so their average income tax expense is about 13% of operating income (Source: Netflix 2023 Annual Report). But, again, this is Book basis not the same as what is reported on the tax returns.

Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of income/loss from business entities is reported on individual income tax returns due to pass-through taxation. It’s very likely that Bezos’ income taxes are also reporting the income and loss from his pass-through business entities. How much of his income is because of this, I don’t know.

You see, the system wasn’t built for the poors

I love it. Businesses need to succeed

Yes I see the problem. The problem is graphics like this resort to outright lies and distortion to get their point across.

For example, Netflix did not pay 1.1%. Google says they paid 12.85% which is low by corporate standards but utilizing deductions the tax code allows.

Well this totally makes sense. Comparing individual income taxes to capital gains taxes to corporate taxes. Why can’t you people understand this?!?!

Let’s take all the money away from successful people and businesses and give it to everyone else. That won’t stifle the incentive to take huge risks. Let’s try socialism again because it has worked so well in the past.

The logic is stupefying. #sarcasm

Where is this mythical top tax rate of 22%? I’d love to only pay 22%

shocking that this is once again a terrible post by an op who knows nothing about finance

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Wait, I’m not done laughing at you for such a dumb post

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

🤣🤣🫵🫵🤡🤡🫵🫵🥴🥴🫵🫵

Note: The income tax code spans more than **70,000 pages!**
I believe this is a major reason that discussions on how to tax (whoever) need to take a backseat to the streamlining and making the code understandable.