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ExfilBravo ,

How good is this dudes security detail? We talking Secret service level dudes or just regular paid security goons? Asking for a friend.

BumbleBeeButt ,

“Jeff dies in crash by drunk driver high on cocaine in Lamborghini at 200MPH.”

Professorozone ,

Just assumed he didn’t pay taxes.

Apeman42 ,
@Apeman42@lemmy.world avatar

So it’s all been leading up to We Have Lex Luthor At Home taking over the mantle of Florida Man?

Faxing_Berlin ,

what is happening here

einat2346 ,

Do billionaires actually save money with such moves? After purchasing a new mansion, new staff/relocations, still having to travel to “librul” cities for their fine arts/entertainment, seems it just about cancels out.

GiddyGap ,

The move probably doesn’t cost $600 million.

iegod ,

If you value that kind of move at $600 million I’m happy to let you know I’m offering the services for a discount this week for only $580 million. Hit me up.

TotalSonic ,
@TotalSonic@lemmy.world avatar

Get rid of income taxes and do a national Land Value Tax on all business properties instead, like Henry George talked 145 years ago, problem solved.

Blackmist ,

And personal properties over the first $10 million or so.

TotalSonic ,
@TotalSonic@lemmy.world avatar

Basically I think the Land Value Tax should apply to any land that isn’t under either a primary residence, or isn’t under a building that solely provides primary residences for others. So that way developing housing is not discouraged, and people aren’t paying rent into perpetuity to the gov for their actual home. In that way, yes, second and vacation homes would be taxed, But the thing to understand is that an LVT is different from standard property tax, in that you don’t charged more tax depending on what is built on the land, you are only assessed based the value of the unimproved land.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Okay, but Bezos makes the bulk of his money on intellectual property and service fees, not physical real estate.

What you’re proposing is still, fundamentally, a tax cut for Tech guys and a big tax hike on the agricultural / mineral / business real estate sectors. It also sets up this very fluid goalpost of “What is an acre of land worth?”

We play this game in Texas, and there’s an enormous incentive for regional economic interests to decide who the Texas Comptroller and Texas Railroad Commissioner is, because these two get to functionally dictate how much tax will be collected on land assets. By contrast, the head of the IRS taxes all dollars equally.

brlemworld ,

They didn’t mention getting rid of those taxes. Just income tax.

TotalSonic ,
@TotalSonic@lemmy.world avatar

You make some really good points here. I’m a Texas resident as well, so I’ve seen the f’ery the State gov does in favor of the politically connected cronies first hand too (e.g. the 5000+ uncapped nat gas wellheads that the tax payers are stuck with health and clean up costs on instead of the companies that profited on them). But the thing with a nationally applied tax is not subjected to the cheaply bought corruption of the State and local officials (although I will agree that on a Federal level even more f’ery can happen, which is why the Federal income tax is being turned ever more into a penalty on so called “middle class” earners, rather than a tax solely on the wealthiest among us, which is how it was done when it was first introduced in 1913).
The thing is that income can easily be hidden, moved or not reported, and it takes lots of resources at both the business and bureaucratic level to track and account for it. And it’s way easier for the uber-wealthy to hide their assets, or to use political influence to create income tax loopholes, than it is for to do that for those that live from paycheck to paycheck. Where as it’s a lot easier to know who owns a property and what they are doing with it. And a nationally applied tax can’t be avoided simply by moving to another State.

As for “What is an acre of land worth?” - with a Land Value Tax you are basing that on the market value of solely the “unimproved” plot of land in an area, so that someone with an empty lot pays the same tax as someone with a huge apartment tower on the plot next door. That way, the LVT does not discourage developing, farming, mining or building in the way a standard property tax (which charges more based on what is on top of the land) does.

As far as exemptions to the LVT goes, I’d say no one should ever be forced to pay rent to the government in perpetuity on their actual home, so a homestead exemption for primary residences should be put in place for sure. Multi-million vacation homes and air bnb’s, seem to me should be paying a national LVT though. But buildings that are all apartments seem to me should also receive exemptions, so that housing development is not discouraged by implementing the tax. Another positive thing with putting the LVT on office buildings is that it incentivises allowing remote working for businesses.

Also - on an ethical level, I’d say by default people are entitled to the entire fruits of their justly engaged in labors, and that taxes are optimally applied via “pigouvian” paradigms, where those that are creating “negative externalities” have to pay the rest of society for the damages in health, clean up and congestion costs they are putting onto others. In other words, in a better world we would just tax polluters rather than wage earners. I will grant that creating a purely pigouvian taxation system has some big issues in how it is assessed and applied though, so that’s where the LVT can help as alternative.

I can also grant that completely replacing the massive revenues that come from income tax with an LVT might shift too much taxation onto some - in which case I’d say a good transition to try would be replacing the payroll tax (for which the Federal gov takes in over $1 Trillion in revenue a year) with the LVT. Payroll taxes to me seem to be the most evil tax, as they penalize both those who are earning wages as well as burdening businesses that are employing people.

Anyway - not holding my breath for any of these proposed changes, just playing wish upon a star, trying to think of better ways of funding needed services without descending into enabling blatant governmental theft and corruption.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

The thing is that income can easily be hidden, moved or not reported, and it takes lots of resources at both the business and bureaucratic level to track and account for it.

That’s largely a consequence of our privatized financial system. Give everyone a Federal Reserve bank account, let people do fee-less banking at the Post Office, establish individual publicly available revolving credit at the prime rate equal to… idk, 10% of your net worth… for daily consumption and 50% for big ticket items. Suddenly everything becomes a lot easier to track and a lot cheaper to manage.

You’ll bankrupt the surviving credit card companies and every major retail bank. And, you know, that’ll cause some problems. But if we’re going to overhaul the entire underpinning of federal revenues, why not shoot for the moon?

As for “What is an acre of land worth?” - with a Land Value Tax you are basing that on the market value of solely the “unimproved” plot of land in an area

But that’s entirely speculative, as real estate markets fluctuate heavily from year to year. I watched my own house gain and lose over 30% in the course of a few years, during the housing boom/bust. And I’m just a humble starter-home guy living in a hot market, not some Blackrock / Berkshire Hathaway juggernaut juggle portfolios in the trillions.

Income taxes are great because income is inherently liquid. If you’re paying out at payroll, you’re never going to not have that money, because the tax comes off before it even hits your bank account. Land Value Taxes are trying to tax you on an illiquid asset. If you’re picking up a tab that fluctuates this heavily, you’re setting lots and lots of people up for a sudden surge in state-owned debts. And that’s a whole new kind of problem.

I’d say by default people are entitled to the entire fruits of their justly engaged in labors, and that taxes are optimally applied via “pigouvian” paradigms, where those that are creating “negative externalities” have to pay the rest of society for the damages in health, clean up and congestion costs they are putting onto others.

Listen, far be it for me to deny the man the sweat from his brow. However, what you’re talking about isn’t a tax issue, its a pay issue. As a contractor, I bill at $250/hr and get paid a meager $60. I’m soaked for 76% of my gross revenue before I even get issued a paystub.

If you want to abolish the wage relationship and guarantee everyone collects what they’re due, my ears are open. But I’m not sure whether I’m going to move mountains over the $10 the Feds collect after I’ve been scalped by my employer for $190.

That’s before you get into how pigouvian taxes are a bitch to calculate and heavily regressive if they aren’t properly amortized.

Anyway - not holding my breath for any of these proposed changes

No. The political system at the moment is nothing if not heavily gridlocked.

But I’ve seen conservatives and liberals alike push all sorts of fancy tax reform schemes. The big problem I see is that the tax benefits some folks get aren’t big enough to build popular support. And the tax hikes others get are guaranteed to provoke enormous outrage.

The only real path forward appears to be nibbling around the edges and refusing to fund the bulk of the IRS so nobody important ever actually gets punished for evasion.

dangblingus ,

Or, just get rid of capital gains taxes and tax it marginally at the regular rate.

Chriswild ,

I don’t think that would be really more effective as the federal income tax in the US caps at a really low rate.

iAvicenna ,
@iAvicenna@lemmy.world avatar

don’t dick moves like this create incentives for states to decrease tax?

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Ostensibly. But the real value of a business owner isn’t in the personal taxes they pay, its in the taxes their staff pays. The bulk of Amazon’s workforce is going to stick to New York and California and Texas, because that’s where the major ports and transit hubs that Amazon needs to operate exist. These states will still rake in tens of billions from the 1.6M Amazon staffers who still need to do their jobs.

You work in the high tax states and retire to the low tax states. Bezos is functionally done being an executive. Now he’s just another coked up Miami fuckboi. But current CEO Andy Jassy will be staying in Capital Hill, Seattle for the tail end of his career because that’s where the actual work of running the Amazon corporation takes place.

iAvicenna ,
@iAvicenna@lemmy.world avatar

yea maybe, I was more imagining like moving to avoid tax but given his level of income I hope he is not running away from a tax which amounts to like 1/1000th of his wealth. maybe he is just moving to move, but who knows…

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

maybe he is just moving to move, but who knows…

He’s a Cuban with family ties in Florida and a man who loves to cover himself in glitter paste and get horny in a pile of college co-eds. I gotta say, I don’t think its just about the tax rates. Otherwise, all billionaires would be living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

thorbot ,

What the fuck is up with her claw thing that’s grasping his hand???

spencer ,

AI hands

bhamlin ,

His girlfriend’s a Canadian AI. You wouldn’t know her.

thorbot ,

It really does look like it but I think there’s something else happening here. Her human suit doesn’t quite fit right

iAvicenna ,
@iAvicenna@lemmy.world avatar

I mean what the fuck is also up with him making a fist while she grasps her hand? Is that like some sort of manliness role play

andallthat ,

she saw the photographer and she’s trying to hold him back from sucker-punching an Amazon warehouse worker he’s just spotted

Wogi ,

She doesn’t look human.

The longer I look at this picture the more she looks like the bug in an Edgar suit.

Everythingispenguins ,

You would think he could afford a more attractive sugar baby

thorbot ,

He’s got an actual alien, that can’t be cheap

Everythingispenguins ,

It is kinda a shame. If you look at some before and after pics of her, she had a great face.

thorbot ,

Yeah, pretty much universal comment about all plastic surgeries

HeyMrDeadMan ,

Dear Miami, you’re the first to go. Disappearing, under melting snow…

ultranaut ,

Strictly rolling VIP

Jaysyn ,
@Jaysyn@kbin.social avatar

Miami is sinking.

CaptnNMorgan ,

Then why are the banks still investing in property over there?

bradorsomething ,

Sunk cost fallacy.

CaptnNMorgan ,

You don’t think they’ll use money to stop the water from flooding them?

TokenBoomer ,

I just want healthcare.

Agent641 ,

Would you settle for some aircraft carriers?

Gradually_Adjusting ,
@Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

As long as Ukraine gets them, I guess. Sheesh 🥲

DragonTypeWyvern ,

I support giving Ukraine the USS Reagan. It’s incontinent, but hey, it’s one more carrier than Russia has.

TIMMAY ,

who holds hands like that lmao

massive_bereavement ,
@massive_bereavement@kbin.social avatar

That's gotta be an AI generated gf.

FruitfullyYours ,

I zoomed in on the picture and her hand has only 3 fingers. Either a really bad photo or she’s got a claw

Erasmus ,
@Erasmus@lemmy.world avatar

Lizard person confirmed.

TheJims ,

Oh good I was worried about his wealth poor fella

hrimfaxi_work ,
@hrimfaxi_work@midwest.social avatar

I hope he’ll be okay. With $2 billion liquidated, his cash on hand is only the average lifetime earnings of 1,176 Americans.

Assuming the average American starts working at age 18 and stops working at 67, that’s just 57,624 years’ worth of American wages.

It’s a shame he’s considering exercising another $6 billion of his stock between now and the end of the year just to get by.

GiddyGap ,

Imagine how many people could be enrolled in healthcare for that money.

What an ass.

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