Is a Flat Tax Regressive?

[NewtonTrino]

I hadn't pegged you for wanting a global tax system. Especially since once you include having to pay for all those impoverished people, your rates will probably go up.

I want a global tax system like the one I described. Completely voluntary!

Apparently that's not going to happen though so instead I'm going to start my own country. I just need to save up a few hundred billlion first.

 

[ServiceSoon]

95th percentile is very very very upper middle class.

Maybe NewtonTrino prefers standard deviation when making these comparisons.

Which is exactly why $150k a year isn't rich. Could they get rich? Sure. But the income itself doesn't make you so. There is a *HUGE* gulf between someone that makes $150k a year and someone that has millions in assets.

Agreed. Net worth is another important tool to determine the wealth of an individual. But the fact remains that you are still very well off if you make that kind of money.

 

[NewtonTrino]

Agreed. Net worth is another important tool to determine the wealth of an individual. But the fact remains that you are still very well off if you make that kind of money.

Well off yes. Rich? No. If you make that money from a job and you lose it how are you doing? You better have some savings ... To me this is what separates the rich from the upper middle class. Do you *have* to work?

 

[ServiceSoon]

Well off yes. Rich? No. If you make that money from a job and you lose it how are you doing? You better have some savings ... To me this is what separates the rich from the upper middle class. Do you *have* to work?

I already agreed that there is more than 1 way to measure wealth. I think the best method is a combination of cash-flow and net worth.

 

[drkitten]

Because it is where we have companies buying bad companies and declaring a loss. Again I am not rabid about this, but if I sell my house at a loss, I do NOT get to write it off. At least that I am aware of.

Actually, you do. Real estate transactions generate capital gains and losses just as stock sales do. Normally capital losses are used to offset capital gains (if you make $100,000 in the stock market, but lose $80,000 on the sale of your home, your 'net' capital gains are $20,000 and you pay taxes on that basis.)

If your losses exceed your gains, then you can take up to $3000 in direct deductions and carry the rest forward to next year.