[skybrian]

The original post was talking about income tax. There are plenty of other taxes on making money by working.

But, if you're living solely off investments you don't pay those. I was surprised to see that capital gains tax is zero below a certain income. It seems rather unfair, since you can choose when to sell.

[sjdb77]

Yeah...seems to incentivize day trading.

[icedchai]

Not really. It's only zero on long term capital gains if total income is below a certain threshold.

[sjdb77]

Isn't short term cap gains taxed like earned income, which below $50k a year is 0 in CA? For federal if you make <$52k (w/ standard deduction) you only pay like a 11% tax rate.

[beefalo]

No it has it's own tax bracket and there is no 0% bracket

[sjdb77]

Ok got it - yeah looks like it's around 4% with a $4k standard deduction.