ProPublica says "we'd love to see more of A, which is separate from B, as B doesn't seem especially workable".
A and B are not the same, even if one encompasses the other in some meta sense.
A is actionable in a direct sense. And if you wanted to do it in a direct sense, the M2M date you'd pick would not be the first day of the tax year. And you wouldn't use a fixed formula that ignored actual results of the asset.
What does "meta" mean in your usage? I may be missing some point you are trying to make. Personal wealth taxes encompass unrealized gains taxes, not in a "meta" sense, but in actuality.
Do you disagree?
> ProPublica says "we'd love to see more of A, which is separate from B, as B doesn't seem especially workable".
I took that to be ProPublica saying "one way to increase the total effective tax rate on the ultra-rich would be to tax unrealized gains. Wealth taxes do that; here are some downsides of wealth taxes as implemented elsewhere."
This strikes me as...fair and balanced reporting?
> A is actionable in a direct sense.
I don't know what this means. Hypothetically the US could have either a personal wealth tax or (only) a tax on unrealized gains.
> And if you wanted to do it in a direct sense, the M2M date you'd pick would not be the first day of the tax year.
No, I agree with this. The Swiss system uses mark-to-market at the end of the tax year. So...point you?
If ProPublica suggested the beginning of the year instead of the end of the year, I overlooked that. Good job catching them on this error, I guess? Or something?
> And you wouldn't use a fixed formula that ignored actual results of the asset.
I don't know what you mean by this. Can you rephrase?
"It's true that a few (and very much declining) number of countries have some form of wealth tax that includes some amount of unrealized gains. The Netherlands, for example, marks-to-market on Jan 1st of the tax year then doesn't actually track gains/losses over the next 364 days. So that obviously isn't a direct tax on gains."
I wrote,
"What? How else would a tax on unrealized gains work if not mark-to-market at a fixed day of the year?"
How do you believe an unrealized gains tax would work if not mark-to-market on a fixed day of the year?
Backing up even further, as I said, this is extreme hair splitting. Major economies do have wealth taxes, which include a tax on unrealized gains via mark-to-market. Is your point just "lol ProPublica r idiots nobody taxes just unrealized gains"?
This is exactly how Wyden’s proposal works as well, so I fail to understand the point you think you are making.
Personal wealth taxes are literally a tax on personal wealth including unrealized gains.
“I was wrong” is much easier to type than your confusing reply. :)