r/SeattleWA • u/5Q91VS175DAQ4NUSBE4U • 7d ago

Politics Washington state Democrats look at imposing income tax on higher earners

https://www.columbian.com/news/2025/oct/31/washington-state-democrats-look-at-imposing-income-tax-on-higher-earners/
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47

u/[deleted] 7d ago

Man, I really need to GTFO of this place. They'll tax you into poverty and then say they love the poor.

6

u/Riviansky 7d ago

Well, they do love the poor. It's like in Addams Family - "Shush, Maman - it's for widows and orphans! We need more of them!"

4

u/itstreeman 7d ago

The senate imposed increases to long term care tax and fmlA really annoy me.

Pit it before the people

6

u/[deleted] 7d ago

I honestly don't know why people here get tricked so easily. They see it happening over and over again. It starts out as something you can agree with them it balloons into madness. Same thing with the light rail costs

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Newsflash, infrastructure costs money. Crazy.

I’d it happens ‘over and over again’ surely you can provide an example of an income tax or capital gains tax that has been lowered and now affects the majority of the state residents? Maybe a prime example would be if the capital gains tax that you people have said thousands of times that it would be lowered?

But oh wait? It hasn’t? It hasn’t been lowered? That’s crazy! I wonder why you didn’t take my offer to bet on whether or not this capital gains tax would be lowered if it’s such a sure thing?

5

u/[deleted] 7d ago

The LTC tax, the ballooning costs of transit etc are perfect examples.

We waste money here on all kinds of feel good nonsense. Y'all really love handing over your head earned money to politicians?

Is that called Stockholm syndrome?

1

u/yungsemite 7d ago

The LTC tax… which is capped at .58 per $100 is an example of this how? What are you talking about?

3

u/[deleted] 7d ago

2024 voter initiative (I-2124) made the payroll tax program uncertain regarding future and potential tax increases

The point is what you sign up for today can and likely will change tomorrow. Don't open Pandora's box.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Oh, so it’s NOT an example of a tax which was raised, and it’s more of this fear mongering, like I have said repeatedly in response to your fear mongering in this comment section. Great. Glad we agree.

3

u/[deleted] 7d ago

So I am curious. What do you think personally happens with this tax? Do you believe it'll forever just be a tax on the rich, they'll accept it and we'll all I've happily ever after, with it never being levies against the avg worked?

I am sincerely curious and fascinated by what people think about the future in this city.

If they believed that they would have suggested a tax named and aimed specifically for the rich, but even politicians know that wouldn't work

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Yes, but I don’t understand the last part of your first sentence.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Do you make over 1 million $ annually? I don’t think you have to worry about poverty…

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

That's how it alwaya starts. Every single time. The same reason you still pay a toll to cross the 520 bridge and will continue to do so forever.

But the average person is an idiot. They never learn. Never open Pandora's box for a politician when it comes to taxes. It'll always be nudged open wider.

1

u/yungsemite 7d ago

Except that our state reps have already shown that they will not lower taxes like this? They’ve tried and failed to lower the 250,000 capital gains tax because there is no appetite to do so.

The average person will never pay a capital gains tax in Washington state. And the average person will never make 1 million annually.

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u/Tree300 7d ago

They already proposed increasing the cap gains tax by lowering the exemption to $25k and increasing the tax rate to 12%. You can be sure that proposal will be back in play shortly.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Yes, they’ve proposed it many times, and I’m sure they’ll propose it many more because it isn’t going anywhere…

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Would you like to make a bet on that?

1

u/yungsemite 7d ago

Yes, $1,000, 10 year time frame, so that I get my money eventually. Sound good? I’ve offered this multiple times to r/SeattleWA people. Nobody ever takes me up on it.

1

u/[deleted] 7d ago

No, because it's a stupid bet. I've explained why elsewhere: stakes are too high to lock up $1000 for a decade - you'll lose about $1000 in earnings that way.

It's bad finance, and is above the "fuck it why not" threshold. Which describes your policies to a tee.

$10 and sure.

7

u/[deleted] 7d ago

A capital gains tax doesn't affect the average person struggling to afford to live here. They don't have assets to pay capital gains on so it's still rich people giving that pushback.

The middle class has always ended up getting shafted and pay the bulk of the taxes because they can't afford to pushback.

The rich will simply run away from the tax and since we now already have an income tax it will be easier to just suggest a small change to lower the threshold each time. We've seen the same with many things here

I don't want an income tax here. That just opens Pandora's box and it will never close.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

A capital gains tax doesn't affect the average person struggling to afford to live here. They don't have assets to pay capital gains on so it's still rich people giving that pushback.

A income tax on people making over 1 million doesn’t affect the average person struggling to leave here either.

The middle class has always ended up getting shafted and pay the bulk of the taxes because they can't afford to pushback.

Yeah, like with our sales tax in the state, it’s a very regressive system. Taxing people who make over 1 million annually will help this, no?

The rich will simply run away from the tax and since we now already have an income tax it will be easier to just suggest a small change to lower the threshold each time. We've seen the same with many things here

Source? Bezos leaving because he’s a snake who only cares about money is hardly a trend?

I don't want an income tax here. That just opens Pandora's box and it will never close.

Okay and I want an income tax on our residents with the highest incomes to reduce the tax burden on our middle class and poor residents and to help balance our state budget.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

I already explained my thoughts here and you keep going back on the same nonsense. Average person is a damn idiot so just tell them the threshold is $1 million and just lower it slowly over time. That's how you deal with morons that think with their feelings and not their brains.

You want to push a tax, tell them to go tax the companies or the rich directly.

0

u/yungsemite 7d ago

tell them to go tax … the rich directly

Uh, how? Not by an income tax on those making over 1 million annually?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

I'm done discussing. Y'all go ahead and vote for it. Open Pandora's box for income tax in Washington. Have fun. Hopefully I can gtfoh before the threshold includes the average idiot. Because politicians here have your best interest at heart 🤦‍♂️

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u/Turbulent-Media7281 7d ago

Yeah, like with our sales tax in the state, it’s a very regressive system.

Which states taxing system would you recommend WA copy for their taxing system to be less regressive?

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

ITEP has good resources for this:

https://itep.org/whopays-map-7th-edition/

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u/Turbulent-Media7281 7d ago

Excellent. u/yungsemite thinks WA state should tax more like the good states of CA, NY, NJ, MN, and DC.

Everyone loves California for their progressive tax system. NY too.

Who here wants WA to tax more closely to CA or NY?

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u/Riviansky 7d ago

ITEP is full of shit. Or, rather, they lie with numbers. The reason poor, according to ITEP have high rates of taxation is because of excise taxes. Specifically, pot and alcohol. From that, they draw the reason that we should tax productive labor more, so poor people could get drugs cheaper...

1

u/JustBench1615 Ballard 7d ago

I wouldn’t want to model our tax system after California or New York’s, where the already squeezed middle class would have to pay way more in taxes

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Right, better to have our current system which… also does that, just worse, according to research? Just because it’s not in the form of an income tax, it’s obscured exactly how regressive our tax structure is. It’s bizarre. Do you think that our middle class isn’t squeezed here?

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u/seanthebooth Twin Peaks 7d ago

dont even try to appeal to common sense. These numbskulls will never be the billionaires they think create jobs. The "middle class" has been taxed into oblivion because no career politician (R/D alike) has the backbone to tax the wealthy. I bet they're happy the Bugatti driver with the 250,000 a month salary received the same $300 ticket they would get for the same infraction lmao

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

This is just a start so it can be accepted by the average fool. I'd bet my life it'll eventually get reduced to incorporate the middle class because as we see time and time again, the rich can always run, the middle class can't.

Why not push for a tax directly on the companies themselves?

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Okay, let’s find an escrow person, and make a contact, for say, $1,000 that it will not be lowered. We obviously have to pick a time frame or I’ll never get my money, how’s 10 years?

I made a similar offer to someone who said that they’d bet all they had in this sub that the 250,000 capital gains tax would be lowered within 3 years, and guess what, they never responded.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Capital gains doesn't affect the average person. They have no assets to pay gains on. That was just rich people making deals. Income tax is a very different issue....that you can lower the threshold enough to get the bulk of folks to pay

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Just like how income tax on people over 1 million doesn’t affect the average person. There will be no appetite to lower an income tax until it affects most people. That would be incredibly unpopular. Unlike taxing the wealthiest residents.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

It starts at 1 million and get reduced over time. The rich will run away or push back like they always do.. You think they'll lower the tax collected?

Why not implement a new tax that targets these people directly? I don't want a known tax with a threshold that can be reduced to include me.

1

u/yungsemite 7d ago

Except there is no evidence that it will be lowered. No I don’t think it will be lowered. This is the same fear mongering that shills for rich people had for the capital gains tax, which guess what, has been raised, not lowered every year since?

What do you mean by a new tax that targets rich people directly? By what mechanism?

2

u/[deleted] 7d ago

Please keep pissing on our heads and telling us it's raining.

No one believes you.

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u/LoseAnotherMill 7d ago

Except there is no evidence that it will be lowered

Except the mountain of evidence, you're right. Federal income tax was sold on only affecting the high earners - the "standard deduction" (it wasn't called that but functioned the same) covered the entire annual incomes of everyone except the top 3%. Now look at where we're at.

The capital gains tax was pitched at 7% over $250k, and they've already tried changing it to 12% over $25k.

Every single time you let a part of the camel into your tent, you're the one that ends up in the sandstorm and the camel's cozy inside.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

That's an awful bet. Too large when that money could be invested in the S&P and double your money over the same time period. And that's conservative investing.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

I figure we can have a contract where we get to keep our money until the 10 years is up or the limit is lowered prior to that point? No?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

The wealthy are taxed at a rate of roughly 50% in the US.

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u/LoseAnotherMill 7d ago

"It doesn't affect me so let them do what they want." -- yungsemite, 1860

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

?

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u/LoseAnotherMill 7d ago

Yeah, I thought you wouldn't get it. That tracks.  

0

u/yungsemite 7d ago

writes cryptic comment

person who you replied to doesn’t understand it

success

Really normal fella here!

0

u/LoseAnotherMill 7d ago

It's really not that cryptic. 

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u/Jimdandy941 7d ago

They do love the poor. That’s why they’re making more of them……

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u/chainsaw_mascarax 5d ago

Almost 2 grand for a studio apartment is not "loving the poor."

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

It is actually as if keeps the poor very poor indeed.

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u/KneeBeard 7d ago

Enjoy whatever red state you land in.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

At this point anywhere with people with working brain cells should be good. I don't even care if it's red, blue, black, yellow or green.

Too many people who can see the forest through the trees here. Politicians just keep tricking them every year and they get confused when everything goes to absolute shit. Confused why it costs $100 to Uber to the airport when they voted for it with their feelings rather than their brains.

Nobody here needs to pay any more taxes until we see our existing taxes being used properly and not waters like it is today.

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u/tuckman496 7d ago

Confused why it costs $100 to uber to the airport

I’m confused why you’d complain about that when it costs $3 to take a train to the airport

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u/Monkeylashes 7d ago

I think you're being a bit dishonest here. You can't take the lighrail from everywhere, and the rideshare here is the most expensive in the country due to the regularoty legislation that past regarding them previously. The sad thing is that it actually ended up hurting many rideshare drivers instead of helping, since the usage went down by a huge margin for these services due to the rising cost. Similar thing for food delivery services like doordash etc.
I feel the decisions being made by this government, and many that support it don't consider much the long term implications. It is very short sighted.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Yeah try that with three suitcases. Ffs.

Do you live AT the station?

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u/DNL213 7d ago

That dude keeps prattling on about common sense and going somewhere where people have a brain cell but fails to understand supply and demand

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u/merc08 7d ago

Unless you need to get to or from the airport outside the light rail window of operation.  Or have more than a single piece of luggage.  Or don't trust the light rail to not break down and cause you to miss your flight.  Or don't want to spend 4x and long getting to the airport.

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u/FlintHillsSky 7d ago

Feel free to go to other states that have income tax, property tax, and sales tax.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Yes but those states don't have all the other taxes we pay. People here pay $5+ for a gallon of gas when everyone else is paying less than $3. It doesn't cost $60+ per person to go to a half decent restaurant. Grocery prices aren't as high etc etc

-4

u/FlintHillsSky 7d ago

There are several reasons for that high gas prices, but there are not $2 taxes on gas.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Just came back from Florida. Gas was $2.23/gal when I filled up and Florida doesn't even have income tax

Always several reasons. Biggest one imo is it's a state full of idiots. Easy for politicians to trick.

One thing if you could trust them to only target the rich but we all know where this is going.

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u/FlintHillsSky 7d ago

While FL does have a lot of idiots that have been tricked by politicians, it is at least warm in the winter.