An insane leftist policy that has DESTROYED nations could be coming to YOUR state, Glenn Beck warns. Glenn dives into how unrealized gains taxes work and why they’re devastating. Australia is now installing them. Will a state like California be next?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. I want to tell you a story here: And it's not just a story. It is actually now happening. In Australia. And it could be coming to a state and a government near you, soon. So let me tell you a story. Let's just call him David. David is not a billionaire. He doesn't have a private jet. He doesn't sip rare wine, you know, or hedge currencies in the caymans, okay?
He's a builder. Literally. He bought some land, let's say, 25 years ago on the edge of town.
No one had ever heard of this town, let alone this area. He poured some concrete. He raised walls. He rented the space to small businesses. And over time, that dusty little outskirt, became a thriving community. He kept the land.
The equity grew.
But he never sold anything.
He just reinvested. He repaired. He paid property taxes. Maybe he developed houses on some of that land. He hired help. Well, today on paper, tasted is worth now $3 million. In real estate assets alone. Okay?
Is that guy a fat cat that's calling the shots that needs to pay their fair share? Or have they already paid their fair share. Because they're just like you. They started with had to go. They worked hard. They invested.
And now they have assets. It's not expendable.
But he's worth $300 million in real estate. Okay. Now, let me tell you the part of the story that goes a little dark. It's called unrealized gains tax. That paper value becomes a real rob.
Because the state now wants to tax him. Not on the money he's made.
They've already done that. But on the theoretical increase in the value of his properties.
Now, he hasn't sold them. He doesn't want to sell them.
But they're going to tax him. Because he's made a profit. But he hasn't. Because he hasn't sold them. It's all on paper, but he has to pay taxes on that profit that is unrealized, he doesn't have. And if his property values plummet the next day, they don't give him the money back.
He just doesn't have to pay any more taxes, because the value has gone down, so he doesn't have to worry about that.
This is not a hypothetical. This is what is happening in Australia right now. A 15 percent tax on unrealized capital gains, for accounts, exceeding $3 million. Okay.
Is there anybody in this audience, that has put money into Bitcoin? And you put maybe a thousand dollars into it, because you're not rich. You put a thousand dollars into it. You put $5,000 into it.
But you really, I mean, it was scary to put that money in.
And you left it alone.
And now, maybe you're approaching $3 million. Now, they're going to tax you when they take that money out, but this is in addition to that! They are going to tax you on the gains!
Not when you take it out. They're going to take you on the gains, that you haven't taken. So if it goes up to 109. And now, all of a sudden, you're in Australia. And that account is now worth $3 million. Guess what!
You now have to pay income tax on that account. So you have to -- what would you do?
What would you do? You just go to your magic money printing machine, that the government would do.
Or do you have to sell something? Maybe the property. Maybe some of the Bitcoin.
And then you never get that money back. If it goes back down, which it will -- if it goes back down, they won't pay you.
Wait a minute, I paid it -- $109,000, and now it's worth 80. Do I get any of my money back? Because I just lost money? No. Uh-uh. No.
Imagine those who lived in California. Who maybe their parents bought a house. And it was $5,000 in 1960.
They still have the house. They can barely afford the taxes on it now, to keep it.
Because it might be worth $3 million, it might be worth $5 million. But it was $5,000 when her parents bought it. And they haven't gone up in their status. They're not hobnobbing it with Bill Gates. They're just regular people, who happened to get on a house from their parents. And they did well with it.
And it's the only asset they really have. But it's worth over $3 million.
Now, how will they pay that tax?
Because now, if it's $4 million.
I got to pay taxes on that. I have to pay 15 percent on that million dollars. Excuse me? I don't have that money! Well, all you have to do is sell your house. Now, let's just follow this logic here.
Consider who wins. Now, who is going to have to really pay this tax?
Is it going to be the ultra wealthy, with the teams of tax attorneys and offshore accounts?
Because they have the means to navigate around the taxes. No, no, no, no. This is going to hit the self-made man.
That's who this is going to hit. The self-made individual. The entrepreneur. The farmer. The small business owner.
They have built their wealth through hard work and prudent investment.
They have -- they have value in that land, that maybe their grandparents bought, and were farmers before them.
And they decided, you know what, I will stay in farming.
And they struggle every day. But now their land is worth over $3 million can. So now they have to pay 15 percent tax on that. In addition. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What? And it's assessed every year?
What? So who sells that?
Or who keeps that? What do they do. They have to sell it. Most likely. The average person. Or the entrepreneur. The person that is not the billionaire.
They will have to sell some of those assets, to be able to afford keeping it. To afford just staying in line. And, you know, not going to jail, because you didn't pay your taxes, to the sheriff of Nottingham.
So now you have to sell, and you have to sell at a distressed price.
Who wins?
Who wins?
Because you're forced to sell at a loss, to cover the tax bill. Guess who is standing there, ready to rake in your property?
The billionaires?
The large corporations?
The Bill Gates of the world, that wants more farmland. Hey, it's going for a song.
I can get this now!
That's who wins in this.
It destroys anybody from trying to get ahead!
It destroys them!
It is immoral.
But that's what's happening in Australia. So watch Australia burn itself to the ground!
It's going to start happening. This thing goes into effect, I think in July.
You watch.
Let's see how this works out for Australia.
Now, meanwhile, we have our own problems here. In Washington State, the Democrats who claimed they were all for adding jobs and clean energy.
Have now blocked a nuclear manufacturing plant.
Okay. Good.
If, you know, you work, you strike, it doesn't matter.
Employees now are required to pay union members not to work, if they're on strike.
And governor Ferguson signed the largest tax increase into state law with the passage of the biannual budget. Which he said, we can't -- we can't afford this.
We have to make cuts. We have to compromise. No. He just went for taxes. I mean, the election is over. Let's just go for taxes.
So what happened?
Well, they are already ranked 45 out of 50 states for business climate.
I mean, would you go work?
Would you go set up a new place in Washington State?
Would you start a business? Would you bring your business to Washington State? I wouldn't. I would get the hell out of there. In fact, I'm telling you right now, if you're in Washington State, get the hell out.
Because once they run out of all of this money that they're taxing from people, what they're going to do is say, oh, you're moving? You can't transfer that money out. You will have to pay an exit tax. And that sounds crazy. But it's going to happen. They will trap you and your money in that state.
Because they're already on that path. They already said, if there's another pandemic, they just passed a law in Washington State that says, you will have no right to your own health care. They will tell you what you have to put in your body, what you have to do. How you have to live. All they need is a medical emergency. Don't think they learned anything from COVID, other than how to control people.
So they are -- they just passed House bill 2081. It increases the Business & Occupation. The B&O tax.
This is a tax that taxes you on the gross. Okay? Which is crazy. If you're in business. You don't get that money. I'm being tax odd the gross. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
I've got things I've got to pay out of that. Tax me on what I take. No, no, no, no. Not good enough for Washington State. We will tax you on the gross.
So if you've got a business, even if your business makes a loss, because you've got bills you're paying, and it's costing you more, you're taxed on what you take in.
Not your net. So even if you lose money, you still have to pay a gross income tax.
Oh, that will work out well.
And the state has just said, it will just be passed on to the consumer. Oh, well, that's even better for the people in Washington!
They also have a new gross surcharge of .5 percent on taxpayers, with the taxable income, over 250 million, which will expire on December 31st, 2029.
Because they're just in this little place now. Don't worry. This -- all these taxes. They're going to stay like this. They're not going to get any worse.
And they will expire anyway. So don't worry about it.
Then they put a massive sales tax expansion on, adding sales tax for the first time for IT services, custom website development, custom software. Security services.
Advertising services. Now need to charge customers, sales tax on every transaction. They also vetoed the removal. The governor did, of the tax preferences for community banks. Let's not help the community panic. No. Let's -- let's help the Fed, and the banks that make up the Fed. You know, the big ones like Citi and all of those banks.
Let's help them put the little banks out.
Okay. Then there's a new gross tax on storage units of almost 2 percent. Let's see. What else?
They increased the capital gains on assets sold. Valued over a million dollars. From seven to 9 percent.
So you don't want to sell your home, better do it quickly. Larger estates, if you have something, $9 million, or up the tax rate now is going from 20 percent to 35 percent capital gains.
What has Washington done for you?
What has the state of Washington done that deserves that increase alone? I'm not talking about your property taxes.
Your state income taxes. But now they're going to take 35 percent of what you've made on your home.
Oh, okay.
Okay. Hmm. It's going to work out well for them.
Meanwhile, California, the Democrats there won't rule out new taxes to pay for health care, for undocumented immigrants.
What are you, crazy. Yes. The answer is yes.
Why do you think gold is going up in price? Why do you think Bitcoin is going up in price?
Why do you think that anything that is outside of this corrupt system is going up in price?
Because the whole world knows, this is not going to last. Now, let me take to you China. And show you what's happening in China, because they're having another problem in China, because they've been doing all these games for longer than we have.
And at which bigger scale. And it's not working there. So let me tell you what the people of China are now doing. Tell me this is not something that you could see happening all around the world.
GLENN: Okay. There's something new in China called rat people. Is it the hybrid of rats and people from the Wuhan lab?
Possibly, that could be coming too. But that is not what this is. These are people who have decided to leave the rat race. Because no matter how they work, they can't ever get ahead. And so they're saying, why would I work?
Why would I work?
They're called netizens. Rat people.
Netizens. Meaning, you're on the net. You're not really citizens. You're more just on the net. And so what are they doing? They're not socializing. They're not leaving their house. They're staying in their house.
Let me give you a blogger, who identifies as a rat person. She starts by explaining, she wakes up at 11:00 a.m. Pretends to be productive by ordering coffee and browsing her phone. Remember, China is watching your phone. At 2:00 p.m. she goes back to sleep. By 5:00 p.m. she gets up, uses the bathroom, collects the coffee delivery left on her doorstep. 6:00 p.m. she has her coffee while watching videos on her phone. 7:00 p.m. she checks her dinner options on her phone and orders takeout. 9:00 p.m. she has her first meal of the day.
One guy said, I have been a -- a rat man now, for five years. I don't socialize at all.
Hmm. This might be exactly what the World Economic Forum said would come. And they would have to, just keep these people entertained on the internet or drug them, because they will be useless eaters. Ah, that's always good. So what is happening? These are people, that basic Gen X-ers. That are like, you can't get ahead.
This is ridiculous! And so they've given up. They think, I don't want to work hard. Because it won't make any difference.
I'm getting out of the rat race. And rat people, the -- the act -- official Chinese language is that they're lying flat. And they say, they're just -- they're not going to do it. Because they can't buy. They can't buy a house.
They can't buy anything nice.
They can't buy anything.
Just, I'm giving up on all of that.
Because my life will always change. Now, China is pushing back on this. As you can imagine, the Chinese Communist Party doesn't like that, because you have a duty to the state to earn. You want to talk about useless eaters. Boy, watch what happens to these rat people. Youth day, which was May 4th. Oh, like May Day. Anyway, there was an article in the Communist Chinese people's daily.
And the -- president, President Xi told young adults, that they have to move to the countryside now, to work and support the party's version of modernization.
So you're going to move whether you like it or not.
And you'll be working. Whether you like it or not. And, you know, you owe it to the country, and to the party, to work.
So we'll make sure that you work.
Now, one person who spoke to the paper, here in America. That, you know, it's The Epic Times, that did not want to give their name. They said a whole generation of young people is babbling for limited opportunities.
Despite the fierce competition, hope is dwindling. That's why everybody chooses now to lie flat, become a rat person. Official data shows, unemployment rate for the 16 to 24-year-old age group in cities is 16.5 percent. But that doesn't include individuals who are enrolled in school, or who have stopped looking for work.
Now, listen to this part: Graduates are now securing positions within the local or state government and any public sector. Jobs are popular there, now, because they have security.
And they earned about $553 a month.
The government grows, as businesses die!