Reply #32: re:

[Lipton64]

"We have a tax system that depends on a some degree of honesty with paying taxes. If you fail to pay, you face criminal and financial penalties. I assume wealthy individuals have more access to accountants and attorneys."

Of course, to clarify my point, I was merely criticizing what I view as the outrageous taxes that people in California have to pay in terms of income taxes. Any state can say you "owe" them money and it can just be an attempted money grab. I've heard about for instance there were billionaires who had completely moved out of their home states and moved elsewhere but their homestates, often being poor and being in the Middle-American bible-belt, often claim to be "owed" back taxes. I feel it's the same way here. If one has to pay 200 million in back taxes then that obviously means that California has an excessive income tax code in terms of PERCENTAGE of one's earnings. As I pointed out, we here in Florida don't even have a damn state income tax. In other words, if I own a chain of restaurants and I clear 40 million dollars in profit for myself, my company will be taxed but I won't be taxed by my state. The feds of course will come with their hands out but why would a state ask for such a large percentage of one's income other than to blow it?

"In this case, we have a wealthy individual/corporation admitting to tax fraud. This person stole from the government by not paying their taxes. What I'm getting from your argument is that we should cap how much a wealthy person should pay because some how $200 million is too much?? Why?"

Well, for one, there aren't any billionaires to my knowledge who reside in California who have over 10 billion in assets. 200 million to somebody worth 2 billion would be a tenth of their total assets. And you pay that to a fucking state? States in my opinion shouldn't even be allowed to tax income, that's the job of the federal government. Small business owners and those "poorer millionaires" who are in the 1 to 5 million bracket can't afford to shell out every 5 years 10 percent of their total estate to the STATE without having economic consequences that will be passed on to the workers and the consumers of said business. If I lost a tenth of my assets as a business owner I would be forced to lay off employees to compensate a massive loss to a state. And then of course the state will come back for more later. The federal government already screws us in terms of percentage of taxes taken and having a state double screw us doesn't sound very fair to me.


"There should be no cap on amount paid. I would love to learn your economic argument about why it's unfair to tax wealthy individuals."

I have no problem at all taxing wealthy individuals and I support taxing them more than the middle class. The flat tax system is a joke as anybody who studies economics knows. It would fuck the poor bad. I just have a problem I suppose with the tax code that California has and if there are other states with similar tax codes then them as well. If a state can tax you 10% of your income on top of the 50+% the federal govt. takes - it soon becomes unprofitable to run a business, no? Why do you think Florida is gaining scores of wealthier people from the Southeast and from the North? They're coming here because they don't like paying state income taxes. Not to mention the warm weather...

In California it wouldn't be so bad if taxes AND spending were lower. I know if I was a billionaire I wouldn't want to pay out 200 million in state taxes. That's a bit excessive to my ear. Not to mention as I said, so much of that will go to people who shouldn't even be in this country in the first place....