I think taxes should be based on a 5-year rolling average, to ease the burden for people who have high income only once in their life. Winning the lottery or patenting an invention that makes you rich is the American dream. Let’s tax high earners but show some lenience for folks who have a once in a lifetime windfall.
You’d be in a lower tax bracket for the year that you won. If it bumped up your tax bracket the following few years, it would still be beneficial because you’d have saved a lot the first year. I don’t know though, this isn’t really an idea about finance or taxes, I just don’t think it’s right that someone who makes a million once gets taxed the same as someone who makes a million every year for 40 years.
You’d be taxed less when you already have a lot, but it’s common for people to blow a windfall and end up much worse off, so being taxed more heavily years later could be really devasting for many.
I can understand wanting to see some lucky shmuck maximize their winnings. But i think it would seem almost cruel to adjust for this one rare situation when so many more significant financial injustices exist.
Yeah agree
They don’t get taxed the same. The person making that money for 40 years is paying 40 times as much.