Tax evasion on stocks has gone on long enough - Richard Wolff

"The stock game players on Wall Street have ripped off the rest of this society for long enough. There is no reason to enable or allow them to do it. And nothing exemplifies this better than the craziness of New York state having in effect a stock transfer tax, a sales tax on shares, in the law since 1905 that is "rebated" since 1981 so that the richest amongst us don't have to pay. Extraordinary. But it is the kind of extraordinary bias built into the tax structure of this society. And you can tell by who benefits from this odd tax structure who has the power to shape that structure so it works that way." - Richard Wolff
This is a clip from Economic Update: The System Implodes: Amazon, Evictions, Tax Abuses, & Minimum Wages
[S11 E08]
Watch the full episode: • Economic Update: The S...
_______________________________________________________________________________________
We make it a point to provide the show free of ads. Please consider supporting our work.
Become an EU patron on Patreon: / economicupdate
Become a monthly donor via our website: www.democracya...
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Learn more about Prof Wolff's NEW BOOK, "The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself"
Now also available as an eBook!
www.democracyatwork.info/books
"Indeed, his book is so thorough, so comprehensive in its insightful analysis, that it is a practically a one-stop center for anyone who wants to understand why the year 2020 has been such a dumpster fire." - SALON
Check out Prof. Wolff's other books "Understanding Socialism" and "Understanding Marxism"
www.lulu.com/sp...
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Want to help us translate and transcribe our videos?
Learn about joining our translation team: bit.ly/2J2uIHH
Jump right in: bit.ly/2J3bEZR
Follow us ONLINE:
Patreon: / economicupdate
Websites: www.democracyat...
www.rdwolff.com
Facebook: / economicupdate
/ richarddwolff
/ democracyatwrk
Twitter: / profwolff
/ democracyatwrk
Instagram: / democracyatwrk
Subscribe to our podcast: economicupdate....
Shop our Store: bit.ly/2JkxIfy

[@gerzxr838]

Wolf tells it like it is 👊🏻

[@edwardyang8254]

I thoroughly agree with you. And I think this shouldn't be just an and American issue, but a world one. China, Europe, anywhere in the world should do the same, as we live in a global economy. The richest top 1% Chinese are in league with the richest top 1% Americans. Neither of them are on the people's side.

[@kevchard5214]

When people grow up with everything they could imagine they believe they are owed this. They are above and better than everyone else and use the excuse that everyone else is lazy or stupid so they don't deserve anything. This mentality has existed for thousands of years and will never change until there are no more billionaires in the world.

[@scar623]

I tell it how it is, but can you take it as it is” - Malcolm X

[@talalel-ali8291]

Thank you Professor Wolff, I found myself through your lectures.

[@48Ballen]

Wolff is a LIAR and a fraud. Communists who present glorious pictures of life under Communism must be frauds because the truth is Communism is a global miserable failure of totalitarians.

[@whoaskedforme]

@@48Ballen "Because the truth is" Thanks, you've convinced me

[@jake4024]

@@48Ballen communism is just an idea not anything rule based, it could never be implemented as Marx wanted, dictators used it to take power for themselves forever staining the name. monarchies and capitalists were just replaced by state monarchs and state capitalists, nothing changed. I don’t think real communism has ever been implemented where there’s no state only people hold power and make decisions which most likely will never happen has power tends to corrupt humans.

[@seanpol9863]

@@48Ballen Funny how you put global and failure in the same sentence. Sounds a bit homoeopathic to me. 🤔

[@russhall1414]

@@48Ballen yeah, and the earth is flat, masks don't work, taxation is theft, Q is real, just like firefighters, police, and schools, are communism, and therefore against the almighty 1percent god, PROFIT!

[@davidevans6618]

The boss is always shocked to find out, money has become the boss of humanity. SQUIRRELS DON'T PAY RENT AND THE EXPERTS ARE BAFFLED.

[@cocineroideal4414]

Imagine there's no countries🎶🎶, it isn't hard to do 🎶🎶

[@undeadblizzard]

Damn right ! At these point we have post- Feudalism the Land and Stuff is own by a few wealthy ghouls. Like Hershey owns like all the candy and Disney owns like Fox, Marvel, DC, Pixar and a chunk of Hulu.

[@droolalot5795]

How about getting the government not waste $1.5 trillion on f35 planes that do not work. Pathetic

[@rjung_ch]

The whole MIC is sick

[@lynnwood7205]

The F35 program is a successful jobs program. Do you want all the thousands of people employed because of that program to be tossed onto the street? And look, the jobs program can be extended for just another trillion of dollars to enhance the performance of the produced F35s to almost the performance levels specified.

[@rjung_ch]

@@lynnwood7205 Killing for Jobs, sure, what a sound excuse to keep that shit in the air? You are a very uninformed and ignorant person to believe this crap you spout out. The US is the killer of the earth at the moment, so shame on you for making it about jobs. Make it about the millions of lives your warmonger nation has killed. Stupid jobs argument, a stupid lie. Shame and disgust. The F35 barely flies as is, it's another disaster in the making.

[@droolalot5795]

@@lynnwood7205 it doesn't fly and the airforce admitted it

[@qwert-ps5rd]

the reason why there is a tax for owning a home and not for owning a stock is really simple government takes care of roads around your house, school, firefighters and police. what do you offer to people owning the stocks so that they should be paying taxes on ownership. Literally nothing. So there is no ground for introducing such a tax. Income from dividends is taxed as he mentioned, which makes sense, government is taxing the income, other them that government has no rights to tax something where they don’t provide any service.

[@qwert-ps5rd]

additionally, he doesn’t say anything about your pensions that are largely on the stock market. this guy would make everybody poor and claim it was good cause everyone was equal.

[@SCHMALLZZZ]

Abolish the stock market

[@jcgfranco]

overtime these videos will be better undestood , maybe it could be too late...

[@russhall1414]

Good morning 😁

[@iansuderman]

Sure lets tax from the income of stocks sales. The main argument I present is this you will by the standards of law allow for costs. So if I am trading and lose on 60% of my trades and have a net loss I can then place losses against my other incomes. Remember most are losing on trades. Today a loss on a trade is not a tax right off but if you are taxing income the same as all others than you afford me the same rights as all others, I get to levy taxes from job income to offset losses. Literally affording me a new tax shelter. Years back we did a paper on why businesses fail. Stunning top reason was for profit. Yes successful businesses like Ford and GM use bankruptcy to generate volumes of cash flow. Not so with trading. Day traders don't get a tax write off for trade losses. Your proposal would give them that. You recognize I make income from trading legal standards force you to accept I could have losses. Further would the trade center leave? In my country I earn all my trading income under a tax haven. My brokerage has traders throughout the world and New York has one of their big trading houses. I though don't use it because I'd rather keep things inside my country for tax purposes. We don't exactly need New York and the company I use wouldn't have a risk switching cause they already have several centers in North America. If government taxes even 1% its enough for them to switch everything but essentials done in New York. I guarantee you if Ireland's tax free zone brought in Apple's headquarters any state wishing to be the economic center can do this. So your thoughts would be a tax windfall and a tax shelter. Cook your books right and you can show your purchasing your own stock was at such a loss as to bankrupt the company leaving an offshore company buying it. Look at that you have several times offered credit to this offshore company but they haven't paid it back. Wow such luck for said offshore company which you happened to be employed by as a janitor taking care of the new building. Just an employee not CEO or anything sure and you make just enough to pay poverty tax. Sure company has a car for you and they pay for your meals and you living quarters and a company expense card. Of course should you really need a big amount of funds the company offers you credit. Credit is untaxable. So if offshore offers me 100k loan and I accept its not an income and its of no concern to any that not a single payment is made on the debt. My point is you've added another method of sheltering funds from taxes. You may even offer a shelter from State taxes that extends over Federal. All because you are calling a return on investment an income the rules change. Return on investments you can't claim negative returns or losses especially stocks but if its regular income than the doors are wide open. Banks are trading in the billions daily that balance their books with other banks, are these income? Sure tax away I'm sure places like Oklahoma can figure some nice "temporary" accommodations for the entire world. They got far with insurance and now banking, that seems similar. Ah 2 points. Your opening Pandora's box for the legal challenge of expense write offs (1). No concrete so securely locks New York into the center for banking (2). Its the American dream anyone can be president just like any state can be the financial center. Take a look at Detroit or Gary or Flint some centers have lost, which is also the American way.

[@petestanton1945]

*write-off

[@russhall1414]

Easy solution: Tax the trade in stocks, not profit from trading stocks. Easy peasy.

[@petestanton1945]

Right, ya obviously it's just a transaction tax & y'all owe the arrears on all that 2

[@russhall1414]

@@petestanton1945 pressing for arears might just slow things down. Just start right away and with a really small transaction surcharge.

[@petestanton1945]

@@russhall1414 yes let them keep the money they stole from the state treasury via "rebates"

[@samcrawford9556]

Thank you, I am sharing, but feel we are not going to change a thing, what is the solution?

[@dylannaenzo9737]

Break up the two party duopoly. Third, Fourth, Fifth, many many parties so EVERYBODY HAS TO NEGOTIATE to get to a majority vote for any legislation. That's how. We need a labor party. Labor is 90 percent of the people...

[@MSuyay]

There shouldn't be taxes on sales. That's the most regressive type of tax and affects the poor more. There should be only one tax and that should be income tax.

[@walden6272]

You do know many CEOs avoid income tax by having the Companies paid them only $1 salary and the rest they pay them with stocks and other assets. The rich knows how to get around these taxes.

[@Rittley]

Saying that the rich benefit from the market is a gross generalization. There are a lot of middle and lower class people (not enough) who own stocks and bonds as a way to get ahead economically. The stock market is open to anyone especially now that commission fees are gone and fractional shares are available. You can't afford real estate in a nice area but you can afford stocks in Apple, FB, etc. On the stock market you'll make exactly same return as rich people do. Stock goes up 5% tomorrow it goes up for everyone. Not like real estate which goes up only in some areas for some people. Imagine taxing lower class people who see the stock market as a way to build wealth! Recipe for keeping people poor. Now taxing only people who own stocks above some high income like $500,000 I can see that. But not taxing everybody who owns stocks!

[@raybin6873]

The income made from stocks is what's needed to be taxed....at same rates as regular incomes - no "special breaks" either. It's TAXABLE. INCOME.

[@Rittley]

@@raybin6873 yes that's right but he is taking about something different - property tax on stocks. This means every year you owe tax whether or not you make any gains on the stocks. Imagine taxing investors, especially lower income retail investors, in a year of recession when their stocks are already down 50%!!

[@tommyob4762]

I would agree with charging tax on people making big trades that rich people make. But little people shouldn't be charged this. I know someone who has less than $100,000 in a company and makes very little income. This would hurt them and they are far from rich

[@chioma3100]

I agree.

[@toddfarkman2177]

Wolff thinks anyone that trades stock is the rich elite. All of his rhetoric is based on hating the rich. "Those damn rich people will pay for buying stock!!!!" That's how you know his words are garbage. Using vitriol instead of logic. He tries to appeal to fear and anger, not common sense.

[@droolalot5795]

The state just wants MORE money to waste. Police making $300k a year take home. Not salary. TAKE HOME. overtime is built in. So they get more taxes and police start making $500k take home per year? PFFT Taxation is theft. Show me your plan on not wasting tax money they already receive. Once there is no waste. I'm not rich either.

[@brentslager1295]

Farmers welfare look into it

[@nolaclarke253]

Thanks for the tip. Sell the home and invest in stocks instead.

[@independenthqusa4170]

Shouldn't we all be a 501C3??

[@ameno3]

I wonder what would cost more to pay this tax on stock purchases or move stock exchange to lets say Texas.

[@webfreakz]

You want to move a large profitable business to Texas with a broken electricity grid? Okay.

[@raybin6873]

@@webfreakz *LOL!*

[@narancauk]

Remove EU mug !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@smartiepancake]

Why does everything Wolff discusses have a Georgist solution? We wouldn't need to tax stocks if we taxed the one thing you cannot evade a tax on - land.

[@lynnwood7205]

Much of the privately held land in the USA is exempt due to ownership by religous organizations. Something which will lead into the problems which it took Europe a thousand years to resolve.

[@smartiepancake]

@@lynnwood7205 Do you mean Henry VIII's theft of Catholic sites? He certainly solved his own spending problems by doing that.

[@petestanton1945]

I dunno, maybe 'cause it doesn't

[@lynnwood7205]

@@smartiepancake One event of many throughout the history of Europe.The confiscation of church estates in in the French Revolution, the separation of state authority from enforcement of church tithes and taxes.

[@smartiepancake]

@@lynnwood7205 What is your point again? You are a Marxist, so you presumably don't mind the idea of overturning everything, yet you throw out historical objections to a reform that's in the Communist Manifesto ....

[@Sksk27547]

Hash tag complainer

[@narancauk]

Remove EU mug !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@narancauk]

Remove EU mug !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@brigittefalderbaum5682]

ok

[@narancauk]

@@brigittefalderbaum5682 Than you. That is USA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not EU.....