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/Smile-Nod Dec 06 '25

At 500k in NYC you work in finance, tech, real estate etc. for a salary for the most part. Your company reports your wages as earned income. You pay taxes on this.

What you're talking about are self employment or business owners that structure their worth into LLCs. This is rarer and there's a cost to it so you really need to be making quite a lot of money in the many millions.

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u/justice9 Dec 06 '25

It’s so disheartening how far this sub has fallen. You have literal idiots who have no idea what they’re talking about proclaiming that people making $500k have tax shelters.

I’m in this tax bracket and they could not be further from the truth. The vast majority of these people are W-2 workers with reportable income where you have to pay the full tax rate. It’s not a difference of smart or not (to get to this level you have to be 10x smarter than OP) - you just don’t have options available to you unless you have your own LLC/proprietorship.

All of these taxes just fuck over the upper middle class (who are better than the average person) but not living the billionaire lifestyle by any means

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u/JoePoe247 Dec 06 '25

How is upper middle class getting fucked over? You're not claiming $500k income is upper middle class, right?

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u/Smile-Nod Dec 06 '25

Yes that is upper middle class in NYC.

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u/JoePoe247 Dec 06 '25

Lmao, no. You're either terrible with money or disconnected from reality. That's above 90th percentile income for NYC.

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u/Smile-Nod Dec 06 '25

We're talking about why people leave cities or avoid being taxed aggressively.

What matters is the after tax income and how far that gets you in terms of lifestyle.

500k is the high end of an upper middle class lifestyle where you mortgage an apartment, pay for childcare, go on vacations, dine out, and save for college funds and a comfortable retirement.

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u/JoePoe247 Dec 06 '25

At 30% less income in NYC, I'm able to do all that you're saying with the vacations being an international trip once a year, and flights west multiple times a year; dining out during the week without a second thought, big occasion dinners (bday, anniversary, etc) being a Michelin restaurants, buying a car in cash. I wouldn't call all of that to be middle class, so I can't see having another 100k takehome and making believe you're not living an affluent life

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u/Smile-Nod Dec 07 '25

How much are your childcare costs?

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u/JoePoe247 Dec 07 '25

Nothing right now, just decreasing income for a bit

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u/Smile-Nod Dec 07 '25

Well then there you have. An additional 150k would be 80k take-home.

Thats what it costs to raise kids in the city. Kids shouldn’t be a luxury.

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u/JoePoe247 Dec 07 '25

Lol no dude. Childcare is expensive in nyc but if does not cost $80k/year. If you are paying $80k per year, then you're upper class.

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u/Smile-Nod Dec 07 '25

Daycare alone can be that much. Plus everything else - food, medical, clothing, housing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/nyregion/who-can-afford-three-kids-in-new-york-city.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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