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points by rich_sasha 1 day ago | 0 comments
A nice idea I heard is to introduce a minimum tax rate based on wealth. Let’s say the magic number is 0.5%. Then you say, every individual (over some threshold etc) needs to pay max(normal tax calculation, 0.5% of wealth) .

What I like about it is that it doesn’t penalize people who already pay taxes. It’s a lower bound, not an extra.

What makes me weary about any such tax is that in practice, it seems to target the broad middle class - people who have enough assets to be interesting to the tax man, but who don’t have enough to hide it or avoid taxes.

[–] teroshan 1 day ago
> What makes me weary about any such tax is that in practice, it seems to target the broad middle class

If you're talking about the "Zucman tax" it explicitely targets the ultra-high-net-worth individuals because that's the population that manages to avoid income tax and thus pay a lower effective tax rate than the rest of the population.

source: https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/report-g20.pdf

[–] rich_sasha 1 day ago
Yes that’s what I was referring to (I couldn’t remember his name).

Still my concern would be that the other Zuck would show he has no income and no assets, while a doctor or coder would end up paying extra tax on their retirement savings.