356
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Charles and Kathleen Moore are about to have their day in the Supreme Court over a $15,000 tax bill they contend is unconstitutional.

The couple from Redmond, Washington, claim they had to pay the money because of their investment in an Indian company from which, as Charles Moore, 62, said in a sworn statement, they “have never received a distribution, dividend, or other payment.”

But significant parts of the story they have told to reach this point seem at odds with public records.

The Moores are the public face of a high court case backed by business and conservative political interests that could call into question other parts of the U.S. tax code and rule out a much-discussed but never-enacted tax on wealth. The case is set for arguments on Dec. 5.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 93 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Cool, I've never received a distribution, dividend, or other payment just from owning my house. Are my property taxes unconstitutional too?

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

That's absolutely a goal of many Republicans.

In Texas there was a guy running for governor in the primaries last cycle with "Eliminate Property Taxes" as the central message of his campaign.

The thing about property taxes is they go to municipal governments, counties, and schools. Lots of cities have laws protecting water, trees, workers, etc that the Republicans hate. By eliminating property taxes, they could gut municipal governments in Democratic areas and public schools.

[-] Not_Alec_Baldwin@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

But what if I want my kids in private school, drink bottled water, live in a rural mansion and don't care about workers?

...I hope the /s isn't needed...

[-] atx_aquarian@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Local property taxes are a way to assess your share of tax burden based on something approximating your share of enjoyment of what's provided by those tax dollars. I.e., by owning property somewhere, you benefit from that location's fire fighters, police, roads, etc. Investment in a foreign property would have nothing to do with consumption of local government services/infrastructure.

[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The purpose of it doesn't really determine whether or not the taxing authority has the authority to levy tax or not. This is all a fight to try to stop taxation of capital until/unless it is sold,at which point capital gains taxes apply. If it's unconstitutional to tax that equity in a foreign property/enterprise solely because it isn't income (distribution, dividend, other payment) then I don't see how it would be constitutional to tax a stake or equity in real estate.

Of course, I'm being slightly facetious here. Obviously we have a long history of taxing property, so I don't see how logically this tax is unconstitutional either. In the same vein, the US also taxes foreign income that has no real nexus in the US, so if that's fine I fail to see how they can't tax a citizen's foreign assets.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

In the same vein, the US also taxes foreign income that has no real nexus in the US, so if that's fine I fail to see how they can't tax a citizen's foreign assets.

On that point I'll have to grudgingly agree with what I assume is the conservative position. I see no moral or legal basis for a county to tax activities that take place outside their jurisdiction. The citizenship of the people involved shouldn't change that, but according to the US (and, as far as I know, no other county), it does. I generally see any conservative legal victory as a setback, but if this case some stops the practice of taxing US citizens living abroad, I'll consider it a silver lining.

Bold of you to think they won't say yes.

[-] Actaeon@artemis.camp 2 points 1 year ago

Property tax is state and local, IRS is federal.

Different constitutions

this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
356 points (98.6% liked)

News

23284 readers
928 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS