this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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If they have billions of dollars, they're not strapped for cash. They have a whole culture and industry designed around tax "optimization" where they buy private yachts, mansions, paintings, and other "real" assets under shell companies to write those purchases off as "business expenses" to reduce their tax liability. That's why they "don't have cash". Because they deliberately avoid holding cash across fiscal years.
They also have sneaky ways of avoiding capital gains tax by reinvesting dividends in ways that defer taxation indefinitely.
That all needs to change, and the only way to change it is through tax policy.
The only way to defer capital gains taxes should be through certain retirement plans, which are generally used by the working class because billionaires don't need 401Ks. And they still get taxed at the end of term when the money is withdrawn, and they can't be withdrawn from early without a tax penalty.
All these exceptions for billionaires written into the fine lines of the tax code that you need to be able to afford a personal accountant and layers of shell companies in order to utilize needs to go away.
Billionaires have the money to pay taxes; we need to stop allowing them to pretend they don't.
They don't have a billion dollars. So where did the money come from to pay the tax?
I'll tell you, it's you. The consumer.
I bet you think China pays the tarrifs too
Your comments across this thread show you took Economics 101 and think you understand shit
So then, where does the money come from then?
Are you deranged? They have net worths in the hundreds of billions of dollars. They make billions more dollars each year. I just explained in detail how they game the tax system to avoid paying taxes on their gains. I'm not going to write it all out for you again just because you missed it the first time.
Yes, obviously their revenue comes from the consumers. In the same way your salary comes from your employer. Money changes hands, that's the whole point. What difference does that make?
By the way, a significant portion of their revenue (with increasing emphasis lately) comes from business-to-business sales. Not the consumer.
And no, China doesn't pay the US tariffs. The US importers do, and they pass the costs on to their consumers. What kind of idiotic strawman/red herring was that supposed to be? If I was a moron who thought China pays US tariffs, I wouldn't be here saying "tax the rich," would I? Stop deflecting from your plutocrat apologia.
Saying the billionaire don't have a billion dollars, so where does the cash come from to pay the tax? This is a real question and it's the reason no one has figured out how to tax them.
Like i said, the "wealth" elon has is backed from stocks at 350 p/e. That money isn't real. U effectively want to tax something that isn't real.
"the billionaire don't have a billion dollars"
Oh yeah, I forgot "billionaire" is what we call someone who doesn't have a billion dollars...
"No one has figured out how to tax them"
I just explained it in detail, which you continue to ignore. People have figured it out, it's not that complicated. It just doesn't get implemented because politicians are bought by corporate dark money lobby groups, and people like you do a lot of footwork obfuscating the situation on the internet by pretending billionaires are poor and penniless.
"the 'wealth' elon has is backed from stocks at 350 p/e. That money isn't real"
Yes, their net worths are inflated (which gives them benefits on loans, which they use to further inflate their wealth). But that's easy to fix. Either don't let them declare worths that are higher than reality, or tax them at the net worths they declare.
Either way, that doesn't change anything I said about how capital gains are taxed, or how they should be taxed.
Get a clue.
But your still didn't explain where the money comes from.
We also call billionaires billionaires because they have a "net worth" of a billion, but having a billion dollars. Example is elon, is he went to the open market and said he is selling all his stock, he would probably get 100 billion. So good net worth would go from 700 billion to 100 billion because he went from a stock evaluation of 350 p/e to 30-35p/e. So that 600 billion disappeared because it isn't real.
So we tax wealth that isn't real, where did the money come from. It didn't come from thin air, it comes from somewhere.