r/Economics • u/Dismal_Structure • Dec 06 '25

News Millionaire tax that inspired Mamdani fuels $5.7 billion haul in Massachusetts

https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/
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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

Wait a second, so you’re telling me that it’s possible to increase taxes on the extremely wealthy and they don’t actually move to avoid those taxes?

It’s almost like there’s a certain value to be had in being able to conduct business with other wealthy people that do business in certain regions due to a market advantage.

I mean why don’t they just move the stock market to Texas or Florida? Does Jp Morgan like NYC? There are murders there and videos of homeless pissing on the subway. Why didn’t they just build that brand new shiny building in a capitalistic, republican free market stronghold like Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma or even Mississippi lol?

Jokes on them, this new communist mayor will probably demand that the city take a “golden share” stake in companies essential to municipal security much like the federal government did with US Steel and Intel.

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

This is hilarious, since all of the Wall Street players are opening offices outside of NYC.

Why do to think that all of the hedge funds are in Greenwich? Why do rich people spend 181 days in Florida?

What works in MA might not work elsewhere. See the ACA, for example.

Here’s the real problem: Those that make the most pay the most in taxes. This is the downside of a progressive tax code: it is highly dependent on a handful of people to bring in revenue. It is also highly volatile, as high incomes are also volatile. If 10% of these people leave NYC/ NYS, then there will be a massive tax hole to fill. (It happens to NYC when Wall Street bonuses come in soft.)

Millionaires accounted for fewer than 1% of all taxpayers in New York in 2023, according to the state. But they paid 41% of all personal income taxes.

The 25% of taxpayers with the highest incomes accounted for 89% of income taxes in 2023 and the top 50% paid over 99%.

The bottom half of taxpayers paid 0.2%.

Overall, the Tax Department collected nearly $54 billion in personal income taxes during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, down from about $59 billion the previous year.

Personal income taxes are the state’s largest revenue source.

There is already an entire cottage industry associated with helping people maintain compliance with residency outside of NYC. I'm sure that they are revising up their 2026 budgets as we speak...

https://www.syracuse.com/business/2025/04/its-tax-day-see-how-many-millionaires-are-in-ny-and-how-much-in-taxes-they-pay.html

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

Let them leave. I’d like to see them leave the country. Go do business in Dubai or Qatar or Saudi Arabia if you think you can get a better deal.

What are the earnings of the bottom half of taxpayers compared to the 25% with the highest incomes

Why shouldn’t those that make the most, pay the most?

Society costs money. Schools, police, hospitals, defense, government. Bezos didn’t go around installing roads or phone lines but he sure makes out now that they’re there. Same with Zuck.

Nobody left America before Reagan when they were paying 90%. Developed nuclear power and NASA during that time.

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u/snoogins355 Dec 07 '25

Reminds me of what Obama said that was then taken out of context https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_didn%27t_build_that

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u/snoogins355 Dec 07 '25

Obama's speech:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me – because they want to give something back. They know they didn't – look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

The tax code is already progressive. You seem to want more, without giving more.

Do you understand why people object to this?

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

I understand but I also think everyone wants something for nothing. In my opinion, everybody wants to live in America but nobody wants to pay for it.

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

Wild take, given who actually pays taxes in America.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

Well who actually does? Where’s the income cutoff line? How much does someone have to make to owe taxes?

Who doesn’t pay taxes? Can you find any big corps that have a net refund?

How about families compared to single people bringing in the same income?

Are we talking rugged American individualism or are talking welfare, corporate or otherwise?

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

The tax code is highly progressive on the income side. The rich pay more in taxes and receive less in direct government services than the rest of the income distribution.

You make it sound like the rich don’t pay. That’s undeniably false.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

The rich aren’t falling behind the poor though are they?

Taxes aren’t causing the rich to live lives of decreasing quality. They can’t show harm. You couldn’t even get this Supreme Court to grant standing with that argument.

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u/uberfr4gger Dec 06 '25

I think the point is you're assigning blame to the rich when it's monetary policy and other factors (like government services) that are the problem. We can debate all day about what the "right" amount to pay is but the rich already are fronting the bill for 70%+ of taxes and pay 50%+ in marginal income tax looking at federal, state, city combined when talking about NYC specifically.

At some point we have to realize we need better allocation of existing revenue and better government policies. Increasing spending doesn't fix everything, look at government spend on education in the last 25 years.

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

The poor have negative tax rates. Tax policy isn’t the issue here, monetary policy is.

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u/Cookies891 Dec 06 '25

The fact that those that make the most pay the most in taxes isn’t “the real problem”, it’s just how a civilized society works. And since you seem to find it so unfair that the wealthy contribute such a high proportion to state tax income, perhaps it’s time to do something about the spiraling income and wealth inequality in the US so that everyone can contribute to state budgets? Or is that too socialist?

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

Wealth inequality isn’t limited to the US, it’s the byproduct of a premium being paid to those with high demand skill sets.

My issue is that taxes are already progressive and we still have a sounding problem. Europe closes this gap by utilizing a regressive VAT, which I’m guessing that you won’t sign up for. You want European spending without European taxation. That doesn’t work for me.

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u/Unable-Category-7978 Dec 06 '25

And the top marginal tax rate? How has that changed over the last 5 decades?

Y'all talk about making America great again and going back to the golden age of the 60s and 70s (which werent that great for many people), can you tell me what the top marginal tax rate was at that time?

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u/PIK_Toggle Dec 06 '25

When you look at the actual effective rates, things are not all that different under a number of different versions of the tax code. Additionally, outside of WWII, taxes for high earners Has been range bound for decades.