{"id":934519,"date":"2021-10-28T19:59:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T23:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=934519"},"modified":"2021-10-28T19:59:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T23:59:36","slug":"billionaire-wealth-tax-raises-legal-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/billionaire-wealth-tax-raises-legal-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Wealth Tax Raises Legal Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbillionaire-wealth-tax-raises-legal-questions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=934519&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"p1\">A \u201cbillionaire\u201d wealth tax proposed by Democrats is likely to fail in the legislature, but it has also raised legal questions as to how constitutional such a measure would be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Earlier this week, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finance.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Billionaires%20Income%20Tax%20-%20One%20Pager.pdf\">proposed<\/a> a \u201cBillionaires Income Tax,\u201d which \u201cwould apply to roughly 700 taxpayers and raise hundreds of billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Wyden noted that \u201cOnly taxpayers with more than $100 million in annual income or more than $1 billion in assets for three consecutive years would be covered by the proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The proposal would involve taxing \u201cgains and losses from assets like stocks,\u201d essentially taxing investments before a person sells an asset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The policy idea has been pushed by Wyden for years, but it has raised concerns about the legal hurdles such an initiative would face, and the reasoning behind such a measure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The 16th Amendment to the Constitution&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/constitution\/amendment-16\/\">states<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/democrats-billionaire-tax-constitution-11635258358\">reported<\/a> by The Wall Street Journal, the bill would probably face immediate legal challenges as billionaires would be willing to pay millions of dollars to fight such a proposal that could cost them billions of dollars in tax payments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Journal noted:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The likely argument: Taxing capital gains that haven\u2019t been realized yet falls outside the income taxes allowed by the 16th Amendment that don\u2019t have to be apportioned based on state population. Under current law, individuals pay capital-gains taxes only when the gain is realized, typically when they sell an asset, such as a stock, closely held business or painting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAnything that involves a large amount of dollars and has some non-frivolous angles to challenge it, you\u2019ll see a challenge,\u201d Joseph Bishop-Henchman, vice president of tax policy and litigation at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told the Journal. \u201cTo the extent that it\u2019s unapportioned and on unrealized income and mandatory, it\u2019s going to raise serious constitutional questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The wealth tax has been attempted in other countries in the past, but it has largely been unsuccessful, and thus, often repealed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/commentary\/why-europe-axed-its-wealth-taxes\">report<\/a> by the Cato Institute noted that \u201c[m]ore than a&nbsp;dozen European countries used to have wealth taxes, but&nbsp;nearly all of these countries repealed them, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. Wealth taxes survive only in Norway, Spain, and Switzerland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When countries have imposed a wealth tax on citizens,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A \u201cbillionaire\u201d wealth tax proposed by Democrats is likely to fail in the legislature, but it has also raised legal questions as to how constitutional such a measure would be.Earlier this week, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) proposed a \u201cBillionaires Income Tax,\u201d which \u201cwould apply to roughly 700 taxpayers and raise hundreds of billions of dollars.\u201dWyden noted that \u201cOnly taxpayers with more than $100 million in annual income or more than $1 billion in assets for three consecutive years would be covered by the proposal.\u201dThe proposal would involve taxing \u201cgains and losses from assets like stocks,\u201d essentially taxing investments before a person sells an asset.The policy idea has been pushed by Wyden for years, but it has raised concerns about the legal hurdles such an initiative would face, and the reasoning behind such a measure.The 16th Amendment to the Constitution\u00a0states:The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the bill would probably face immediate legal challenges as billionaires would be willing to pay millions of dollars to fight such a proposal that could cost them billions of dollars in tax payments.The Journal noted:The likely argument: Taxing capital gains that haven\u2019t been realized yet falls outside the income taxes allowed by the 16th Amendment that don\u2019t have to be apportioned based on state population. Under current law, individuals pay capital-gains taxes only when the gain is realized, typically when they sell an asset, such as a stock, closely held business or painting.\u201cAnything that involves a large amount of dollars and has some non-frivolous angles to challenge it, you\u2019ll see a challenge,\u201d Joseph Bishop-Henchman, vice president of tax policy and litigation at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told the Journal. \u201cTo the extent that it\u2019s unapportioned and on unrealized income and mandatory, it\u2019s going to raise serious constitutional questions.\u201dThe wealth tax has been attempted in other countries in the past, but it has largely been unsuccessful, and thus, often repealed.A 2019 report by the Cato Institute noted that \u201c[m]ore than a\u00a0dozen European countries used to have wealth taxes, but\u00a0nearly all of these countries repealed them, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. Wealth taxes survive only in Norway, Spain, and Switzerland.\u201dWhen countries have imposed a wealth tax on citizens, it often leads to wealthy people departing the nation or placing their funds offshore.Investors\u2019 Chronicle reported that over \u201c12,000 millionaires left France in 2016, according to research group New World Wealth. In total, they say the country experienced a net outflow of more than 60,000 millionaires between 2000 and 2016.\u201dFrance created a wealth tax in the 1980s that was later abandoned by the country\u2019s current president Emmanuel Macron in 2017. \u201cThe rate was charged on individuals with a net worth over \u20ac1.3m (\u00a31.14m), with the rate ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent (on assets over \u20ac10m),\u201d the outlet noted.Billionaires in the U.S. have voiced concerns over the discussion of such a tax.As The Daily Wire reported, billionaire Elon Musk \u201cslammed Democrats in a tweet on Monday over a proposal they are considering that would tax unrealized capital gains.\u201dMusk wrote, \u201cEventually, they run out of other people\u2019s money and then they come for you.\u201dExactly. Eventually, they run out of other people\u2019s money and then they come for you.\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2021The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1888410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-934519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1888410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}