this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Technology

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[–] webkitten@piefed.social 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Can't wait til he pushes back and cancels it next week when he gets the slightest push back from billionaires.

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

We need something like:

  • Unrealized gains are not taxed directly (because that does create issues). But borrowing against them is treated as partial realization, which is taxed. Loans shouldn’t be a way to live without a tax burden. Tax the collateral as a percentage of its value.
  • Maybe put the tax on the loan issuer, who can then determine whether or not to raise the loans rates or add fees to offset the burden.
  • Instead of taxing gains equally, tax assets according to how liquid they are. Public stocks are high, treasury bonds are high, private businesses are low, primary residence is low, fine art is low.
  • Deferred gain with interest. Gains still accumulate without tax. When eventually sold, you calculate interest at sale time. An interest surcharge is added based on how long taxes were deferred.
  • Allow equity dilution: Instead of requiring cash, large holders of public companies may periodically transfer a percentage of shares to public treasury.
  • Tax luxury expenditure derived from wealth. Private jets, yachts, a fucking social media company… tax the shit out of stuff like that. Use market rate as basis. If a company buys a yacht to lease to the CEO, the company pays the tax.
  • Tax publicly traded assets via central clearing systems, on a rate to scale basis. First $50M annual exempt. $50M–$250M tiny rate. … $100B+ steep rate.

You wouldn’t even have to worry about dynastic wealth via step up in basis, after a certain point. So long as you’re effectively taxing wealth along the way.

Honestly… you know what the billionaires say, right? “Move fast, break things.” I wonder how they’d like it, when it’s their things which might break.

[–] Zannsolo@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

Stocks given as bonuses/pay should be taxed upfront at the time of insurance either pay the appropriate income tax rate in cash of the value at time of issuance or the government gets the same % of the stock as the appropriate income tax rate(probably the top rate) which it will sell off over 12 months as to spread impact to share price.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (4 children)

As someone who lives near a Best Buy, I'm at Best Buy often," Newsom told reporters during a news conference. "And I'm paying sales tax on a lot of this prewritten software. And then I find out that all my friends that aren't near a Best Buy, they're downloading and they are not paying sales tax. How is that fair?"

Are you actually older than Bernie Sanders. Who the actual fuck buys software in a box in a store? I was born in 1980 and I've never done this.

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Also, what human being has ever said "prewritten software" to describe a video game or an office suite you can buy at Best Buy?

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

What, you don't write your games yourself?

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 5 points 17 hours ago

This sounds like something donald trump would say but vaguely coherent

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 12 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Games are software. People buy a FUCK load of games. If I go to best buy and buy a game I pay sales tax. If I buy the same game online I do not pay sales tax.

I'm in California. This is one of the reasons I don't buy games in stores.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Why would you ever physically get in your car and go to a store which has 20-100 games instead of clicking in a store that has thousands in either case?

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

Interesting, steam charges taxes on my purchases. Though I believe it is due to Canada doing digital sales tax laws a while back.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Video game industry is literally the biggest software and entertainment industry. OP is confused.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

OP is confused about what? Nobody says "prewritten software" few people buy software in stores anymore. I'm not even arguing over taxing software I'm arguing over his reasoning and verbiage.

[–] Aitolda@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

I'm a couple years younger than you, and well as a kid we did buy software from babbages or electronic boutique. I think the last time I bought software for a store was around 2010 at a micro center or something. But that was already a rare occurrence at that point. So as of today it's probably been 16 years since I've done so. I think most of the stores that actually sold software are out of business. So your point is valid.

[–] fira@lemmy.today 50 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Tax the rich you coward!!

Seriously though, is he trying to fire a salvo in some BS culture war battle? Maybe he thinks taxing software will effectively tax ai?

[–] MysticKetchup@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, taxing the average consumer more but refusing to tax billionaires is regressive and dumb as hell. Newsom is a sellout

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 5 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The exemption on silicon valley's sales tax is a defacto subsidy of billionaires.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Why stop there? food stamps are a subsidy for corporate ag. Public roads are a subsidy for big oil. And schools are a subsidy for all the companies that don't educate their workers. Wow, we are very smart of have realized this

[–] fira@lemmy.today 2 points 12 hours ago

Damn sounds like we need some good old fashioned communism so we make sure the subsidies are going to the people rather than some rich egomaniacs hedge fund

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

This is mostly a tax in video games. Basically it's an attack on steam.

I'm in California. If I but a game(software) I pay tax if I do it at Best buy. If I buy it on steam I pay no sales tax.

I wouldn't be surprised if 99% of all software bought in stores is just video games.

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Steam already charges a state sales tax, so this isn't at Steam. There are a lot of other smaller online stores that don't bother with state taxes though.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

That's only partly correct. Steam only charges a state sales tax for states that require sales tax on its purchases. CA does not impose state sales tax on digital products, so Steam does not charge CA residents a sales tax on purchases. This is aiming to level the playing field for brick and mortar stores as well as make more money (from normal people instead of taxing billionaires).

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

That's interesting, I've seen it in multiple states and just assumed it was the standard at this point. Is CA late to the game on this because so many of the online companies lobbied against it hard in their home state?

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

I'm not sure, but that sounds likely. We have Silicon Valley, which contains billionaires who think they are more important than other people and have no problem saying stupid stuff like, "taxing digital products will cost jobs and move companies out of CA."

[–] frog@lemmus.org 15 points 1 day ago

He works for billionaires. This is just a virtue signal to make it look like he could be taxing AI when really it's a regressive tax that would hurt poor people the most and further save his voter base: billionaires.

So he will never push a genuine wealth tax, but he will push red herrings.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 119 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (47 children)

"As someone who lives near a Best Buy, I'm at Best Buy often," Newsom told reporters during a news conference. "And I'm paying sales tax on a lot of this prewritten software. And then I find out that all my friends that aren't near a Best Buy, they're downloading and they are not paying sales tax. How is that fair?"

I agree, its not fair, let's just remove the sales tax, k? 👍

Also pretty sure no one is buying software from Best Buy in 2026, that would be dumb as hell.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 22 hours ago

Video games I bought at Best buy constantly. One of the largest sections at like my local Best buy for example.

Video games are software... This is functionally just a tax correction on video games.

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[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 94 points 1 day ago (12 children)

This is the candidate libs are going to be screaming at you to vote for in 2028. Don’t let him make it past the primary.

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[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Gavin is a fuckin chode.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

"Not fair to those who buy physical software"

What was the most recent fucking calendar year when somebody walked into a CompUSA and bought physical boxed software??

I think I bought Half-Life 2 in box on launch day. So... 2004.

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[–] chunes@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

I've never heard the term "pre-written software" in my life and I've been a nerd for many decades.

lawyers sure are something else with their stupid-ass terms.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Greasy Gavin needs to tax his billionaire golf buddies.

Motherfucker.

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