Brian Galle

Billionaire tax author says fears about it unfounded Few of the ultra-wealthy are likely to leave, he says.

One of the main arguments voiced by opponents of the proposed billionaire tax here in California is that it will drive the ultra-wealthy to leave the state. That fear, says initiative co-author @bdgesq.bsky.social, is overblown. In an interview with the @sfexaminer.bsky.social Galle explained why.

Taxation without representation, you might call it.

Indeed, and yet a kind of inevitable result of current taxpayer standing rules.

It is interesting to think about ER as potentially similar to pension savings where the avg effects we can see in data might be driven by small group of big responders while many firms are unresponsive.

An issue that I think is at the heart of many current unemployment insurance problems, and from two people I'll always want to read more from. Click.

I mean, fair; it was written by a tax professor and that shows. But you can also describe the general thrust of the incentive to employers pretty easily.

How to Tax the Ultrarich Learn about the Fair Share Tax (FAST), a practical, constitutionally sound plan to tax the ultrarich, close loopholes, and prevent dynastic wealth accumulation.

Our fellow @bdgesq.bsky.social helped design the California wealth tax now being protested by the pro-billionaire advocates.

Last month, he laid out a national approach to taxing extreme wealth—so public services can be sustainably funded.

Because the tax code clearly isn’t working as intended.

Shut it all down. We're never going to top this

You're welcome! But really, 20 pages are bibliography, so it's only 160 pages. 😆

Billionaires march leader ID'd, says effort sincere Startup founder not billionaire, but supports them.

News flash! March to protect billionaires from tax too small for their accountants to even notice is unlikely to draw favorable crowds, billionaire-backers say:

www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

(also quotes me; for the data I'm citing, see www.nber.org/papers/w34170)

Kate, would love your thoughts about whether LLC borrowing could be an important source of missing data in this recent, influential, study of high-earner borrowing:

repository.law.umich.edu/law_econ_cur...

Also scraping and parsing ucc-1 text seems not hard. My DMs, as they say, are open.

I do hate it but would probably like it better if I were still a 20 minute walk to good seats. Add Darryn Peterson to AD, Trae, Sarr, and some of the guys who aren't ready yet but getting there and you have at least a fun team.

But also definitely read Ray's book it's great.

How to Tax the Ultrarich Learn about the Fair Share Tax (FAST), a practical, constitutionally sound plan to tax the ultrarich, close loopholes, and prevent dynastic wealth accumulation.

Hey, I'm aware of another new book that directly relates tax policy to these data on how little of their lifetime earnings the ultrarich actually manage to spend. What's that one again? Oh, yeah, it's:
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Retweeting for the kid in the t-shirt. The guy dressed as the Monopoly top-hat character...I mean, I chuckled, but a bit easy. Let's get creative out there, people.

Oh wow, uh okay full disclosure we are receiving tremendous amounts of cash to be here.

How to Tax the Ultrarich Learn about the Fair Share Tax (FAST), a practical, constitutionally sound plan to tax the ultrarich, close loopholes, and prevent dynastic wealth accumulation.

Our fellow @bdgesq.bsky.social helped design the California tax. Now, he’s advancing a nationwide ultra-wealth tax—to rein in extreme wealth and, by extension, curb the political power that currently comes with it in every state in the country.

Read the plan here:

"The butlers' march"

Apparently, this is real. Or if it's actually by that Borat guy, he created a very, very deadpan web site.

Anyway, imagine the vanity & self-regard it would take to organize a protest *this* week and it's against a 1% annual tax on billionaires.

@oxfaminternational.bsky.social reports billionaire wealth has reached a new peak. Policy needs to catch up.

The FAST proposal from @bdgesq.bsky.social offers a practical way to tax the ultrarich in the US ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4btkkp0

Here's the skinny on the California wealth tax ballot measure

Six months ago, we told you all about how NYC millionaires wouldn’t run for the hills if Mamdani won and raised their taxes.

Now, we’re debunking the same myth with the new California billionaire tax ballot measure.

Learn more in our new Closer Look:
patrioticmillionaires.org/perspectives...

ICYMI, this is one of the coolest projects I’ve peeked behind the curtain on.

If you’re a tax nerd this mechanism is worth your time to understand

California billionaires’ revolt over a 1% annual tax is ‘nonsense,’ architect says: A 1% annual tax won’t doom anyone’s business | Fortune UC Berkeley professor Brian Galle told Fortune he’s an “enthusiastic capitalist” and his tax ideas have nothing to do with harming the U.S. economy.

“I’m interested in how things work. And right now, it [capitalism] doesn’t seem to be working well,” Professor Brian Galle (@bdgesq.bsky.social) spoke to @fortune.com about his new book, How to Tax the Ultrarich: https://bit.ly/3LTOA1V

How to Tax the Ultrarich Learn about the Fair Share Tax (FAST), a practical, constitutionally sound plan to tax the ultrarich, close loopholes, and prevent dynastic wealth accumulation.

In short, the FAST offers a path towards getting a more genuinely progressive tax system that is hard for ultrarich investors to dodge, while fitting into the narrow legal path the Court is willing to accept. Read more: bit.ly/4rk6wBM
12/12

As a special transition rule, anyone who makes the election to pay early within the first 2 years of the new regime would just pay capital gains, not the extra FAST charge. That would strongly incentivize investors to pay tax on their existing $2-4 trillion in untaxed gains right away.
11/12

One other key element is that taxpayers would have the option to pay earlier than sale. This is very similar to existing rules for interests in foreign mutual funds, known as PFICs. We want people to make the election b/c we want that money within Congress’ 10-year budget window.
10/12

What this means economically is wealthy investors would no longer have a tax reason to hold onto their property. Government would get the same revenue as it would have under a wealth or MtM tax. We'd get the progressivity, too. Everything would look like wealth or MtM tax, except the timing.
9/12

The FAST taxes a successful investor who sells in an amount that leaves them with exactly the $$ they would have had if they had been paying annual tax all along, and re-investing the remaining proceeds. So the rate is higher the more the property has increased in value.
8/12

My proposal – which I call the Fair Share Tax, or FAST—aims to get us the revenues and incentives of an MtM tax (taxing gains/losses each year regardless of sale) while still fitting within the Court’s definition of “income” as happening only at sale. The way to do that is to adjust the rate.
7/12

But at the federal level, there is a constitutional problem. In 2024, SCOTUS suggested that broad-based wealth & MtM taxes would likely be inconsistent with the 16th Am. definition of “income.” That claim is silly & ahistorical. So is a lot of what this Court says, but it’s the law right now.
6/12