And if you actually believe that's where it will stop, I have a rainbow farting unicorn in my backyard I'll sell you, cheap. This is how all new taxes work.Yup, and that's ^^^^^ great.
You are the kind of person that won't play the Lottery because "If I win $100 Million, I will have to pay TAX on my winnings." "And that is totally unfair"
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First, they're sold as "only applying to the rich" to give the average taxpayer a false sense of security. "Yeah, that'll teach 'em a lesson. Get those evil rich guys".
Second, the evil rich guys, not being idiots and employing tax attorneys to keep their tax bill to a minimum, take steps to avoid the new tax. In this case, they'll probably go ahead and sell off their stocks as soon as they can, crashing the markets. And why would they care as long as they sold before the panic started? Then they would take the cash and invest or stash it somewhere they won't have to pay the new tax.
Third, Congress, like the hungry dogs they are, meets the anticipated new revenue with spending that immediately exceeds it.
Fourth, the tax hikers realize that they're not going to get anywhere near the revenue they thought they were going to get, so they do the inevitable. redefine wealthy. All of a sudden, instead of $100 million, now it's $50 million, then $10 million, then the entire middle class will see their life savings evaporate as they have to sell the assets that they purchased years ago for retirement just to satisfy the rapacious federal government's wealth grab. Eventually, everyone who purchase any asset that appreciates in value will pay the tax.
As long as the congresscritters can convince the gullible that THEY won't be hit and it's only going to affect the OTHER guy, they'll keep pushing the limit lower and lower, and by the time they have to ease off, the idea is permanently set that you don't really own anything, that you only have what you have because government allows you to have it and you have to pay for the privilege. Note that the pushback won't be that the tax is wrong or killing the economy, it will only be that the limit is too low. The precedent will be set and it will never go away.