[lightcatcher]

How much wealthier would you be if you paid no taxes at all in tax year 2020?

An example with some made-up numbers that could apply to some HN users:

Let's say your net worth was $500K at the start of the year, you earned $200K income in the year and spent $50K. Without taxes, your end of year net worth would be $650K. However, you pay $40K+ in taxes, which makes your net worth <=$610K. So effectively you paid $40K/$650K = 6.1% of your wealth in taxes.

"Regular" people build wealth through income, while wealthy build wealth through appreciating assets. The point I take from headlines like these are not "US executives illegally avoid taxes", it is "tax rules favor the wealthy". Increasing tax on appreciated assets by raising capital gains rates, removing step-up basis, or (maybe) taxing unrealized gains could shift some of the tax drag on wealth from income earners towards asset holders. All of these would need to be done very carefully to not overly hurt small business owners, perhaps through something like a lifetime capital gains exemption (similar to gift exemption, apparently existed in Canada in the 80s[0]).

[0]: https://static.twentyoverten.com/5b9280ab0420c067d6b36505/Wo...