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Comment by iamgopal | Hacker News Reader

Their money working for them. I think this is as it should be. But, all kind of inheritance should be banned, or to be created at heavy tax. That way, a rich self made person got to have and spend his money any way he wants, and at the same time, undeserved millionaire and billionaire get taxed.

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So you want it to just be illegal for any person to gift money to another person?

I think there is a reasonably balance to be found somewhere between not being able to give your friend 5$ and being able to make everyone even tangentially related to you into billionaires that do nothing but collect and spend the interest on their wealth.

Bezos is with about $110B. He is "tangentially related" to far more than 110 people. There is a solid track record of inheritors of massive wealth pissing it all away in a generation or two so you don't have to worry too much about it.

> There is a solid track record of inheritors of massive wealth pissing it all away in a generation or two so you don't have to worry too much about it.

I don't think wasting billions of dollars is any better.

Where is it wasted? It gets invested or spent.

> pissing it all away

AKA spending it

The person receiving should count it as income and have it taxed accordingly.

Gifts are taxable above a certain point which is kind of crazy since taxes were already paid on the initial income.

A lot of things are taxed multiple times. I pay income tax, then use that taxed income to purchase a vehicle which carries a sales tax, and for awhile I even paid a tax on the value of that car annually. Same money being taxed multiple times. All recurring property tax can be viewed this way.

Inheritance or gifts should absolutely be taxed as income to the person receiving.

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