Brian Galle
@bdgesq.bsky.social
Berkeley law prof guy, erstwhile Georgetown, DOJ, & points in between. Mostly boring tax stuff; occasional dollops of nonprofits, law & econ, etc. Could be arguing in my spare time.
Economics
48%
Business
26%
Notably, though, the article fails to mention that it is now too late for a billionaire to leave to avoid the tax.
California could impose a billionaire tax. Here's how it would work and where the money would go.
Proposed California ballot initiative would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires, with the revenue funneled toward health care and education.
www.cbsnews.com
A decent summary from CBS. They are still doing some news there I guess.
www.cbsnews.com/news/califor...
www.cbsnews.com/news/califor...
Introduce yourself with what almost killed you:
Hi, I'm Rhabdomyolysis in the middle of Yosemite with the nearest trailhead 22 miles away.
Hi, I'm Rhabdomyolysis in the middle of Yosemite with the nearest trailhead 22 miles away.
Introduce yourself with what almost killed you:
HI, I'm 360s across 4 lanes of busy but not slow I-95 traffic
HI, I'm 360s across 4 lanes of busy but not slow I-95 traffic
Introduce yourself with what almost killed you:
Hey, what's up? I'm "grading 80 corporate tax exams."
Hey, what's up? I'm "grading 80 corporate tax exams."
Reposted by Brian D. Galle
Introduce yourself with what almost killed you:
HI, I'm 360s across 4 lanes of busy but not slow I-95 traffic
HI, I'm 360s across 4 lanes of busy but not slow I-95 traffic
Hello, I'm a ruptured brain aneurysm.
Introduce yourself with what almost killed you:
Hi, I'm Rhabdomyolysis in the middle of Yosemite with the nearest trailhead 22 miles away.
Hi, I'm Rhabdomyolysis in the middle of Yosemite with the nearest trailhead 22 miles away.
Are you a billionaire? Happy New Year! If you're living in California today & the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act passes, you'll pay a one-time 5% tax on your net worth (which you can spread over 5 years if you pay a small deferral charge).
Indeed, not that George Yin. We'd love to have both!
Reposted by Brian D. Galle, W Grant
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Respectfully, as the co-author of multiple mark-to-market bills, can I suggest that you read them first and then get back to us on whether they "underestimate the...complexity"? Among other tools, you can use retrospective tax (taxing at sale with an interest charge) for volatile or illiquid assets.
Indeed, and the same general spin on an Auerbach-Bradford retrospective tax works for pretty much any hard to value asset.
"Solving the Valuation Challenge: The ULTRA Method for Taxing Extreme W" by Brian Galle, David Gamage et al.
Recent reporting based on leaked tax returns of the ultrarich confirms what experts have long suspected: for the wealthiest Americans, paying taxes is mostly optional. Some of the country’s richest ha...
scholarship.law.duke.edu
Notional equity shares resolves the governance questions Wojtek raises, as my co-authors & I have explained at (to an economist or other reasonable person) painfully great length:
scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol72/is...
scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol72/is...
Reposted by Brian D. Galle, Pepper D. Culpepper
The Onion
@theonion.com
· 4d
Tech Billionaires Threaten To Flee California Over Proposed Vest Tax https://theonion.com/tech-billionaires-threaten-to-flee-california-over-proposed-vest-tax/
Yes in the case of capital gains there was some uncertainty about what the Court would do with gains accrued before the 16th Am. was ratified.
The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy share.google/hlFoVuE27pah...
Yeah, as we report in the findings section (based on work by Emmanuel, Danny, and Gabriel, and their excellent grad student), billionaires pay an all-in tax rate of 20% less than the median household. Their share of state tax is almost surely even smaller.
Reposted by Brian D. Galle
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“California is on a path to self-destruction,” wrote Bill Ackman, joining opposition to a tax proposal alongside Google’s cofounder and more.
Possible California Wealth Tax Causes Billionaire Freakout: Page, Thiel Threaten To Leave
“California is on a path to self-destruction,” wrote Bill Ackman, joining opposition to a tax proposal alongside Google’s cofounder and more.
www.forbes.com
This is the same guy who predicted the streets of Manhattan would be clogged with millionaires' moving trucks, yes?
Just as a reality check, the CBTA would reduce the growth of an avg billionaire's wealth from ~7% to 6% annually for 5 years.
If your COLA got cut by 1%, would you quit & move to FL?
Just as a reality check, the CBTA would reduce the growth of an avg billionaire's wealth from ~7% to 6% annually for 5 years.
If your COLA got cut by 1%, would you quit & move to FL?
So, long story short, it is routine for tax legislation to define the scope of what's taxed with reference to events that occurred during the year. Obviously SCOTUS can reject precedents, but it would likely have to toss a large body of prior cases to find anything problematic about the CBTA.
/fin
/fin
The legislature doesn't even have to say what the rational basis is, as long as there could be one.
Notably, Justice Thomas concurred with the majority, and indeed would have gone even further in finding that there are basically no limits under the Due Process Clause on retroactive taxes.
/7
Notably, Justice Thomas concurred with the majority, and indeed would have gone even further in finding that there are basically no limits under the Due Process Clause on retroactive taxes.
/7
Carlton makes a few key points. For one, it observes that the Court routinely upholds tax rules that only reach back to the beginning of the calendar year, or a little bit before.
Second, it says that retroactive tax rules are permissible as long as they serve some rational basis.
/6
Second, it says that retroactive tax rules are permissible as long as they serve some rational basis.
/6
United States v. Carlton, 512 U.S. 26 (1994)
United States v. Carlton
supreme.justia.com
The most recent big case on retroactive tax legislation is 1994's U.S. v. Carlton. In that decision, the Court unanimously upheld an amendment that raised taxes on certain pension savers more than a year after they had made their pension contributions.
supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...
/5
supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...
/5
For about the first 50 years of the modern income tax, whenever Congress changed rates or rules, it did so effective January 1 of the year in which the new legislation was enacted, to the point that SCOTUS came to describe this as the "routine" practice.
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For example, today's federal income tax went into effect in October of 1913. It imposed tax on all incomes "received after March 1, 1913." Taxpayers complained this was unfairly retroactive, but the Court rejected their arguments in its decision in the Brushaber case.
/3
/3
The Times story calls the Jan. 1 residency date a "retroactive" rule, which in some senses it is. It will impose tax on individuals who lived in California before the initiative goes into effect.
But tax laws are routinely & permissibly "retroactive" in this sense, as SCOTUS has recognized.
/2
But tax laws are routinely & permissibly "retroactive" in this sense, as SCOTUS has recognized.
/2
More seriously, as most readers here know I helped draft the CA billionaire tax initiative text and you just can't get out of it by setting up a couple of LLCs in Florida. We have thought about how to block these fake paper moves for 4 years.
Billionaires are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents.
As the Times story on the CA Billionaire Tax Act notes, if the Act is adopted in Nov. of 2026 it will impose a tax on all individuals who were resident in CA as of Jan. 1 (i.e., next Thursday). It is very unlikely billionaires can really move before then. Is that constitutional, though? Read on.
/1
/1
This is a good question that deserves its own thread; hang on a second while I write it.
Reposted by Brian D. Galle, Jeremy J. Schmidt, Brooke Harrington
Forbes
@forbes.com
· 6d
Possible California Wealth Tax Causes Billionaire Freakout: Page, Thiel Threaten To Leave
“California is on a path to self-destruction,” wrote Bill Ackman, joining opposition to a tax proposal alongside Google’s cofounder and more.
www.forbes.com
“California is on a path to self-destruction,” wrote Bill Ackman, joining opposition to a tax proposal alongside Google’s cofounder and more.
Billionaires are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents.
A Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving
It’s uncertain whether the proposal will reach the statewide ballot in November, but some billionaires like Peter Thiel and Larry Page may be unwilling to take the risk.
nyti.ms
More seriously, as most readers here know I helped draft the CA billionaire tax initiative text and you just can't get out of it by setting up a couple of LLCs in Florida. We have thought about how to block these fake paper moves for 4 years.
Billionaires are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents.
A Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving
It’s uncertain whether the proposal will reach the statewide ballot in November, but some billionaires like Peter Thiel and Larry Page may be unwilling to take the risk.
nyti.ms
Are they going to stay with their girlfriend in Canada?
A Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving
It’s uncertain whether the proposal will reach the statewide ballot in November, but some billionaires like Peter Thiel and Larry Page may be unwilling to take the risk.
nyti.ms
Billionaires are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents.
This is the best argument for relying on the inherent contempt power. I've long been a deep skeptic (see: my many questions to @joshchafetz.bsky.social about whether contemnors would be locked to the Russell Building snack machine) but maybe if it works it works as political theater. Big if though.