Yes, it’s a wealth tax, actually worse. When will we all pay taxes on unrealized gains?

The pro­posal un­der con­sid­er­a­tion from Sen­ate Fi­nance Committee Chair­man Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) would im­pose an an­nual tax on unrealized cap­i­tal gains on liq­uid as­sets held by bil­lion­aires, Trea­sury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday on CNN.

Wall Street Journal 10-25-21

“I wouldn’t call that a wealth tax, but it would help get at cap­ital gains, which are an ex­tra­or­di­nar­ily large part of the in­comes of the wealth­i­est in­di­vid­uals and right now escape tax­a­tion un­til they’re re­al­ized,” Ms. Yellen said.

Wall Street Journal 10-25-21

Help get at capital gains? Get at❓ Large part of income? Escape taxation until they are realized? What kind of double talk is that? If they are not realized, how can they be income? They are taxed when realized, duh! So are my 401k and IRA distributions.

Think of the precedent this sets. Income is no longer actual income, but what may be income today and could be gone tomorrow Today billionaires, tomorrow millionaires, next day upper middle class Americans. Nobody pays tax on what they did not realize.

Then there is this, paying for ongoing programs based on a highly volatile source. A multi-year bear market, an international crisis, a failed company and poof government revenue evaporates or greatly declines. There is an incentive for a stock price not to increase until the time of right. Maybe move assets from liquid to fixed assets.