Did I say mandatory? I meant optional! You’re “free” to die in a cardboard box under a freeway as a market capitalist scarecrow warning to the other ants so they keep showing up to make us more!

  • Embarrassingskidmark@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They shouldn’t be taxed because they’re just that, unrealized. They may be worth next to nothing one day. If you use them as collateral, you’re still on the hook for the value you originally took out the loan for, regardless of the loss of the investment.

    • julietOscarEcho@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      This argument applies to my wages too if I elect not to be paid in USD. Are you arguing that, say, Bitcoin income should be untaxable just because it could depreciate relative to the USD tax liability it generates.

      • Embarrassingskidmark@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You’re getting confused between a payment & an investment. The medium in which you are paid is irrelevant. The payment is the end of the transaction and therefore is the point at which it is taxed.

        • julietOscarEcho@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Precisely. The medium of value delivery is irrelevant, as soon as you extract value by borrowing against an asset you have completed a transaction and therefore is a point at which it could (/should though that’s the debate I guess) be taxed.

          In both cases (payment in bitcoin or borrowing against stock) your remaining position could go to zero leaving you liable for tax you don’t have money to pay, but that’s on you to manage better.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Except they are realized because they are being used to purchase things and/or make more money. It can do nearly all of the things that “realized gains” can do, without being taxed.

      It’s bullshit and you know it.

      (Because apparently that sentence was too distracting for some people)

      If they truly are “unrealized”, then sure don’t tax them. But I think we need to change the definition of that term to include the actions that OP mentioned.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          That wasn’t the argument though? Look, I will give it a strikethrough and it will not change the point of my comment in the slightest.

          You completely ignore the entire comment except one sentence, and then you tell me to get an education? Lol

          Who’s got the shit argument again?