Hacker News Reader

Comment by _-david-_ | Hacker News Reader

>The fact that ownership of businesses is exempt from this is part of the inequitable structure of our laws that benefits the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

This will hurt the middle class who have 401ks or pensions. I get wanting to tax the rich, but this is absolutely going to hurt more than just the wealthy.

View on HN

I think it will only hurt 401k's if they have over a billon in assets, or pull out $100M/annual. In which case... I think I'm still ok with it. I remember someone has a billon+ Roth IRA, and at some point that is just getting really lucky and then abusing the structure.

Income tax was originally only applied to the wealthy. Now look where we are. Even if they do pass the bill with those limits it is only a matter of time until they lower it more and more and it applies to everyone.

Yep, it's a strategy to divide opposition and get people used to the idea of it

401k already have a slew of different rules and exemptions and it would make sense to continue to exempt them from regular taxes.

Seeing how they are talking about unrealized gains, I wouldn't count on an exemption.

Well that's clearly not the intent of the bill and regardless:

> The tax proposal would apply to just about 700 taxpayers, Democrats say — people who earn more than $100 million per year or who have more than $1 billion in assets for three straight years.

If you have $1 billion in your 401k, you can probably afford the taxation.

Looks like you missed part of the article

>Most of the gains on tradeable assets like stocks would be taxed at the existing capital gains rate, which is currently 20% for individuals earning over $445,850.

That quote is putting the 20% rate in context, it's not saying that anyone earning over $445,850 would pay it. The legislation still only applies to the ultra-rich, but they'd be using the existing capital gains rate, which is currently 20% for individuals earning over $445,850.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com