The Dead End of Reparations - Why it is a Very Bad Idea

[Curried Goats]

How much are reparations going to be?

That's a silly question at this point. It's all hypothetical.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

That's a silly question at this point. It's all hypothetical.

How does the San Francisco plan sound?

 

[Curried Goats]

How does the San Francisco plan sound?

I'm not entirely familiar with it. I did find this assessment of a federal reparations program and how it could be paid for.

How Could the United States Pay for Reparations?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I'm not entirely familiar with it. I did find this assessment of a federal reparations program and how it could be paid for.

How Could the United States Pay for Reparations?

Thanks.

Will raise an estimated $4.35 trillion over the next decade and cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years, which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class

Bernie is always good for a laugh.

 

[Curried Goats]

Thanks.

Will raise an estimated $4.35 trillion over the next decade and cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years, which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class

Bernie is always good for a laugh.

So is watching your lot get tripped up.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

So is watching your lot get tripped up.

Bernie's idiocy doesn't get me tripped up.

 

[Curried Goats]

Bernie's idiocy doesn't get me tripped up.

Neither do your ad hominem debate practices.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Neither do your ad hominem debate practices.

Bernie "We're gonna take 8% of all your stuff every year"

Elon Musk "Elon no es aqui"

 

[Curried Goats]

Bernie "We're gonna take 8% of all your stuff every year"

Elon Musk "Elon no es aqui"

So instead of name calling you decided to put on a play because you think that's..... better?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

So instead of name calling you decided to put on a play because you think that's..... better?

Anyone who thinks a wealth tax will raise over $4 trillion in ten years is pretty fucking clueless.

 

[Curried Goats]

Anyone who thinks a wealth tax will raise over $4 trillion in ten years is pretty fucking clueless.

And back to name calling....

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

And back to name calling....

Factual.

 

[Curried Goats]

Factual.

Fallacies aren't facts.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Fallacies aren't facts.

Bernie is clueless.

 

[themirrorthief]

Bernie is clueless.

bernie is brainless

 

[Curried Goats]

Bernie is clueless.

I'm not bothered by your lack of an intellectual or rational reply. Quite the opposition actually.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I'm not bothered by your lack of an intellectual or rational reply. Quite the opposition actually.

Fiscal Studies

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Open Access

Why were most wealth taxes abandoned and is this time different?​

Sarah Perret
First published: 25 October 2021

https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12278
Citations: 7

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Abstract​

Wealth taxes are increasingly being considered as an option in policy and academic circles to collect additional revenue and address inequality. One objection that is often raised, however, is that they seem to have failed in countries that tried them, with most OECD countries abandoning their wealth taxes in recent decades. This paper gives an overview of OECD countries’ experiences with wealth taxes and explores the different factors that have led to their repeal in most countries. The paper also discusses whether the situation might be different today and what the implications for tax policy might be.

1 INTRODUCTION​

Wealth taxes are increasingly being considered as an option to raise additional revenue and to address inequality in policy and academic circles. More recently, wealth taxation has featured prominently in discussions about tax policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Wealth taxes are not new, however, and one of the most common objections to their introduction is that they seem to have failed in the countries that have tried them, with most countries abandoning their wealth taxes in recent decades.

The main objective of this paper is to examine previous experiences with wealth taxes in the OECD and to look at the factors that led to their repeal in most countries. Understanding these factors may be helpful in the present context. Indeed, the policy implications today would be different if evidence showed, on the one hand, that the repeal of wealth taxes was primarily due to proven economic effects, or if it showed, on the other hand, that wealth taxes were abolished mainly because of policy design and administrative issues, or political economy factors. Proven economic effects could more easily lead us to conclude that wealth taxes should simply be abandoned as a policy tool, while policy design or administrative issues, as well as political economy factors, may be more contextual and therefore likely to change.

Section 2 of the paper looks at OECD experiences with wealth taxes, highlighting their decline as well as their heterogeneous design across countries. Section 3 examines the factors leading to their repeal in most countries. It looks at and assesses the importance of three different sets of factors: the economic effects, the administrative and tax design issues, and the political economy factors. The last section of the paper discusses whether the situation might be different today and what the implications for tax policy might be.

2 EXPERIENCES WITH NET WEALTH TAXES IN OECD COUNTRIES​

Decline of wealth taxes in the OECD​

Net wealth taxes are recurrent taxes on individual net wealth stocks.1 They are distinct from taxes on capital income, which are levied on the flow of income generated by assets (e.g. dividends, capital gains, interest income). They can also be distinguished from other taxes on property. They differ from inheritance or estate taxes, which are only levied when wealth is inherited by heirs. Compared with recurrent taxes on immovable property, they are taxes on a broad range of movable and immovable property, net of debt. Finally, unlike sporadic capital levies, net wealth taxes are levied on a regular (annual) basis.

Net wealth taxes are far less widespread than they used to be in the OECD (see Figure 1). In 1990, there were 12 OECD countries, all in Europe, that levied individual net wealth taxes. However, most of them repealed their wealth taxes in the 1990s and 2000s, including Austria (in 1994), Denmark and Germany (in 1997), the Netherlands (in 2001),2 Finland, Iceland and Luxembourg (in 2006) and Sweden (in 2007). Iceland, which had abolished its wealth tax in 2006, reintroduced it as a temporary ‘emergency’ measure between 2010 and 2014. Spain, which had introduced a 100 per cent wealth tax reduction in 2008, reinstated the wealth tax in 2011. The reinstatement of the wealth tax was initially planned to be temporary but has been maintained since. France was the last country to repeal its wealth tax in 2018, replacing it with a tax on high-value immovable property. In 2020, Norway, Spain and Switzerland were the only OECD countries that still levied individual net wealth taxes.

Revenues from wealth taxes​

Wealth taxes have generally accounted for a very small share of tax revenues. In 2018, tax revenues from individual net wealth taxes ranged from 0.2 per cent of GDP in Spain to 1.1 per cent of GDP in Switzerland. As a share of total tax revenues, they ranged from 0.5 per cent in Spain to 3.9 per cent in Switzerland (see Figure 2). Looking at longer-term trends, Switzerland has always stood out as an exception, with tax revenues from individual net wealth taxes that have been consistently higher than in other countries.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1475-5890.12278#:~:text=However%2C%20most%20of%20them%20repealed,and%20Sweden%20(in%202007).

DURR

 

[Kondor3]

Again, I'm not sure how accurate a statement this can be considering that I don't think the struggle for reparations is going to entail having to whether assaults from racist citizens and police officers armed with fire hoses and billy clubs. I'll take argument and debate over that every day.

Giving Black Folk money for being Black is what it amounts to, and that's not gonna fly in the final analysis, counterpointing notwithstanding.

Who's they?

The younger generation of White Folk referenced in the previous segment... the ones who would end-up footing the bill over time.

 

[Curried Goats]

Giving Black Folk money for being Black is what it amounts to, and that's not gonna fly in the final analysis, counterpointing notwithstanding.

I think there's a better chance of convincing the majority that people who hold similar views to you are ignorant racists than to you do in making this the prevailing belief.

The younger generation of White Folk referenced in the previous segment... the ones who would end-up footing the bill over time.

Where are you getting this information from? The link I presented showed how funding could be handled through a wealth tax or baby bonds. What's your source other than your imagination?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I think there's a better chance of convincing the majority that people who hold similar views to you are ignorant racists than to you do in making this the prevailing belief.

Where are you getting this information from? The link I presented showed how funding could be handled through a wealth tax or baby bonds. What's your source other than your imagination?

Much lower rates have never worked, anywhere they've been tried, but Bernie thinks
a top rate of 8% wouldn't cause anyone to move out of the country. Because he's an idiot.

It would raise much less than the "projections" and black people would still whine.