i come from the stance that the problem is not with too few tax dollars coming in...but rather...too much "mishandled" funds going out. do not raise taxes, reduce spending. I prefer the majority of capital concentration to be in the hands of the citizens, not the state. I hate the federal government. They want us to hate rich people, instead of the real source of the issue, which is themselves.
Why limit your hatred? It is the local state governments in the US which will continue to nickel and dime the taxpayer to death.
Good question! The only way to do this that I can see is to require some form of mark to market accounting, and then only on highly liquid assets such as securities traded daily in volume, where it is easy to arrive at value. Then you deduct unrealized losses from unrealized gains, with carry over from one year to the next. Not terribly complicated if it is only once per tax year. (Banks are required to use mark to market daily!) With Elizabeth Warrens wealth tax proposal, I thought the devil was very much in the details of how valuation was arrived at. Taxes are an important integral part of our overall economy and serve to help give our money value. We need fair, easy to administer taxes, and that means a simpler tax code than we have now. If I wanted to be a bit cynical, I'd say we could have a far simpler tax code, but first we would have to do away with Congress.
That is not being cynical that is being realistic. There is the old truthful saying that the only time the country is safe is when Congress is not in session.
Taxing unrealized gains makes no sense on account of the fact that... they are not real. My understanding of the loophole is that instead of selling the stock and having to pay taxes, some take out a loan backed by said stock. So why not just treat any loan backed by that stock as income, since that is real?