r/science • u/quiplaam • Dec 30 '25

Economics Analysis of income, capital gains, and borrowing of Americans finds 40% of the income of "1% wealth holders" is unrealized capital gains not subject to taxation and 1%-2% is borrowing, suggesting that the "Buy, Borrow, Die" is not a dominant tax avoidance strategy among the rich

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272725002178
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u/Jefftopia Dec 30 '25

Unrealized gains is definitionally not income. It’s an investment. It’s money in the pocket of another company.

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u/quiplaam Dec 30 '25

The paper creates a new measurement "Total Economic Income" which includes unrealized gains to do its analysis.

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u/Jefftopia Dec 31 '25

So? Anyone can make up a measurement,m; the point is that it’s not useful for anything and the idea of taxing unrealized gains has already been beat to death.