Here's the thing -- why should wages and salaries be 100 percent taxable while capital gains - income from sale of investment property or other investments - is taxable only at 50 percent?
No reason other than that those who benefit from investments have held the reins of power and have held them for all together too long...
Old reformer Henry George held the view that capital gains - income from accrued value of property in particular - should become the property of the society as a whole, embodied in the government. George pointed out that profit from the sale of raw land -- land that no one is living on and where no improvements have been done -- is due to improvements made by others -- real working farmers in the area -- and due to a rise in general conditions due to work by government and society at large.
Why should the investor make a profit and keep that profit when he did nothing to cause that profit?, Henry George asked. He said all the profit should go to the government.
Jagmeet Singh's proposal to tax 75 percent of capital gains as income (up from 50 percent) - to be taxed after deductions at a less than 50 percent tax rate - is only a small step in the direction of Henry George's 100 percent taxation on 100 percent of capital gains. But it is a step in the right direction.
keywords: NDP 2019 federal election
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