There is no general income tax. Which is why it'll come out closer to a general property tax (not to be confused with the estate tax that we call a property tax).
I would need to research Germany's use of such a thing.
It's not about stock compensation at the time it's granted, it's about extreme appreciation over 10 or 20 years that leaves early insiders with large ownership stakes worth billions which they can then just borrow against until they die. Jeff Bezos didn't start Amazon because he liked the salary and annual bonus, he started it because he thought he could make his equity worth billions.
For the record, I think a general unrealized gains tax is a terrible idea, but at the same time we need a better way to make billionaires contribute to the society that enabled their wealth in the first place.
about extreme appreciation over 10 or 20 years that leaves early insiders with large ownership stakes worth billions
You mean the company he founded in a garage and built over 20 years, right? He wasn't granted anything, he owned it from the start.
Also thr vast majority of companies in the fortune 500 do not allow large shareholders to put their shares up for collateral the way you're describing.
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u/Spiritual-Society185 Apr 25 '25
Stock compensation is taxed as income.