Letters to the Editor: A wealth tax only for billionaires? You might have to pay too
To the editor: Tax season is in full swing, so now there is a proposal to tax "extreme wealth" in California. The top 1% of earners here already pay about 50% of all income taxes, but the fairness warriors are demanding more. ("California should pass a small tax on big wealth," Opinion, April 22)
In their op-ed article, David Gamage, Emmanuel Saez and Darien Shanske write about billionaires, but their tax would hit wealth over $50 million. Peripatetic billionaires are the bait, but the real goal is to hit the merely rich by Los Angeles standards. The $50-million threshold will not hold long, nor will the 1% rate on wealth above it.
My assets are not stocks and bonds, and God knows they aren't cash, so I actually have no idea what they are worth. How much time and money will I have to spend each year proving that I don't owe a wealth tax on the merely rich?
Larry Tucker, Newport Beach
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To the editor: Taxing extreme wealth is a fine idea, but here's another one — do away with Proposition 13.
In 1978, the ballot initiative was promoted as an assist to seniors. In reality it was a way to help corporations with valuable properties as well as homeowners with expensive properties.
Now there's a new generation of seniors. I am one of them, and I pay more than $6,000 per year for a 1,600-square-foot condo that I bought 33 years ago.
It's time to equalize property taxes, which would benefit residents whose payments today are excessive, especially when compared to those who pay next to nothing for very valuable properties they bought many years ago.
This would help our state.
Lynne Shapiro, Marina Del Rey
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To the editor: Surely, we can find a way to make the tax system more equitable without creating a whole new category of taxes. I have little doubt that a "small tax on big wealth" today will be a larger tax on smaller wealth down the road.
We already pay income tax, sales tax and property tax. Adjust those if need be, but let's not introduce yet another significant conduit through which our money will flow to the government.
Peter Marston, Glendale
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To the editor: If billionaires held their wealth in real estate instead of stock, they would pay an annual wealth tax collected as real estate property taxes.
So, treat stock like real estate. Register it, assess it, and tax it yearly.
Funding our societal needs based on the magnitude of wealth rather than the form, or the asset class it is held in, seems more equitable.
Donald Pechet, Los Angeles
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
