2026 California Billionaire Tax

I wonder what it would look like if the federal income tax was removed, and instead the amount needed was assigned to the states to produce proportional to population, however they want.

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stevenalowe 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Note that this vote also has to alter the state constitution to permit this kind of tax

If passed it will not be a “one-time” event, it will be a long-term disaster

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1970-01-01 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It needs to be a federal tax or they'll just move to another state. Not saying this isn't a good thing, but it won't produce anything until the taxman has teeth in every other state.

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lokar 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And that seems unrealistic.

IMO we would be better off closing other loopholes:

- various special carve outs (real estate stuff, carried interest, etc)

- enforce the estate tax for real

- ban stock buy backs, make companies return cash via dividends, which are easy to tax

- remove special treatment for capital gains

- hire lots more auditors and lawyers for the IRS to go after high wealth returns, where all the fraud is

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chabes 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is a myth, perpetuated by the wealthy. Very few people would actually go through the trouble of moving from California. Be serious.

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seanmcdirmid 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Billionaires are definitely mobile and can easily move states, many already have. It will be hard for a single state to get focused revenue from the really rich, and that federal intervention is required. Parent was right.

	▲	lokar 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The Google founders left

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1970-01-01 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Elon Musk moving to Texas was a myth?

	▲	chabes 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Tax evaders gonna tax evade. Sure, a couple token public billionaires make a big stink about how they are “moving”, while still maintaining homes and businesses in California. This is for the narrative, with the added bonus of tax fraud that they can and will get away with.