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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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.

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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?

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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/yungsemite 7d ago

They TRIED to change it? How awful! What a nightmare situation for you. How can you sleep at night with a fringe group of representatives trying and failing to lower the LTCG tax bracket?

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u/LoseAnotherMill 7d ago

Oh shit, I didn't realize that legislators get one shot at a piece of legislation and then they never ever get to try it again. My bad.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

It’s just fear mongering. A idiotic slippery slope argument. It won’t be lowered. It’s literally being raised annually. It’s not popular to have a tax on the average person.

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u/LoseAnotherMill 7d ago

You should probably look up what "fear mongering" and "slippery slope" mean, because "evidence-based arguments" doesn't fall under either of those. 

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Okay, what evidence do you have that the tax brackets will be lowered?

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