Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by skiddo 1260 days ago
Okay - but said “unrealized gain” could have dividend payments or be used as collateral for a loan.
1 comments

Dividends are taxable income my dude… kinda showing how well you understand the topic here.
I notice you ignore the collateral on a loan argument that points to just how real these gains are.

His point was these Dividends payments exist due to unrealized gains.

A better example is zero-coupon investors must report a pro-rated portion of interest each year, as income, even though interest hasn’t been paid out. Aka you own a bond and haven’t been paid yet but you still owe money due to the increase in value.

So to be clear simply owning a bond can be a taxable event while stocks are given an interest free loan on their gains.

Zero-Coupons do have a peculiar tax obligation. But they also have a face value and a maturity date. Something stocks, and most other classes of asset don’t have.

There is no interest free loan on stock. Capital gains and income derived from trading securities is fully taxed. What you’re arguing for is a wealth tax, a completely seperate category of tax from income tax. But you’re making this argument using highly deceptive language, and what seems to be a rather poor understanding of how the existing tax system works.