patrick.net

mell says

There is only one fair solution which will also make cpas (at least for non business entity individuals) unnecessary. Flat tax of 20% (or whatever your threshold is) on any source of income, no matter what. Count everything together, add gains/losses, take 20% off, done. Of course only on "realized" income/gains/losses. All these loopholes, tax-free limits and penalties are bullshit. Also don't punish early 401k withdrawals, it's your fucking money. Just tax it like income, done.

So it will be just a regular brokerage account, no need to call it 401k anymore.

RWSGFY says

mell says

There is only one fair solution which will also make cpas (at least for non business entity individuals) unnecessary. Flat tax of 20% (or whatever your threshold is) on any source of income, no matter what. Count everything together, add gains/losses, take 20% off, done. Of course only on "realized" income/gains/losses. All these loopholes, tax-free limits and penalties are bullshit. Also don't punish early 401k withdrawals, it's your fucking money. Just tax it like income, done.

So it will be just a regular brokerage account, no need to call it 401k anymore.

Agreed. Maybe it can still be special by being able to decide when to pay taxes on it, i.e. you can defer tax payment in gains as long as you don't pay yourself out, and when you take a distribution you will get taxed. Gives a little flexibility without having to hold onto stocks for too long to avoid gains tax. Either way is better and fairer than what we have now

I will gladly tax you today for benefits you will never realize before Doomsday.

There's another obscure tax; "annuity premium tax."

At the time, the reason given for a new tax on annuities was typical for liberal assholes: "Annuities tend to be owned by rich people."