• Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    What if the real estate market cools off and they never get their millions of dollars - do you think they should get a refund for all the years they paid the higher tax on the expectation of getting rich which never happened?

    • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      20 hours ago

      Why would that be so.

      Any investment has risks. On average real estate taxes are overwhelmingly taxes on real gains that are actually both enjoyed and eventually realized often without a commensurate tax rate especially when they are given to descendants and the value is “reset” to the level it was received and all those gains magically poof and cease even being capital gains.

      A tax payer funded remission when the market drops would be full on pants on head crazy for so many reasons. It would encourage stupid risk on the basis that it would be subsidized by the government, it would be paid by everyone but overwhelmingly enjoyed by the rich, and it would oft represent fake losses. For instance collecting 10,000 for 5 years on a 1M property then remitting 25k back largely to the 1% who overwhelmingly own the country then oops it recovers its value after the crash!

      Real permanent loss of value in consumer real estate is rare and impossible to sanely effectively insure against. Fortunately it is a fucking fake problem.

      It is highly weird to see a bunch of people in the top 10% whining about the only real way they remotely pay their share.