Forgejo is changing its license to a Copyleft license. This blog post will try to bring clarity about the impact to you, explain the motivation behind this change and answer some questions you might have.

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Developers who choose to publish their work under a copyleft license are excluded from participating in software that is published under a permissive license. That is at the opposite of the core values of the Forgejo project and in June 2023 it was decided to also accept copylefted contributions. A year later, in August 2024, the first pull request to take advantage of this opportunity was proposed and merged.

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Forgejo versions starting from v9.0 are now released under the GPL v3+ and earlier Forgejo versions, including v8.0 and v7.0 patch releases remain under the MIT license.

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[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

            
              Wealth tax does not block economic growth, rather the opposite, because it forces wealth to be reinvested to not lose too much value.
You clearly need a lesson in proportional taxation if you think people would have their personal property appropriated.
I do not give a fuck about you placing your dignity in ownership of material assets, that is a you problem.
The top 10% pay less income taxes as a fraction of their income than the bottom 10%.
Really, we should remove the capitalist class because they will fight back to the detriment of everyone else.
I do not give a fuck about the IRS. I am not an American. My country actually has a wealth tax.
You are repeating misinformation and capitalist propaganda with little understanding of what you are saying. Have you even reflected on what "the economy" really is? If you are a trickle-down Reaganomics-follower, you might want to get your brain checked.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I would give up my US citizenship if it were passed. It's enough I live abroad and still pay taxes for my dividends. If you start taxing my investments directly, I'll have to get a different passport

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The US is the only country I know of that practises this.

[–] LemoineFairclough@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

I've been told Hungary does, though I haven't heard much about it until recently: https://www.uscisguide.com/dual-citizenship/u-s-dual-citizenship-and-taxes-with-hungary/

I've also been told South Africa and Eritrea do, and I wouldn't be surprised if places like North Korea and Turkmenistan do too.

Somehow Hungary gets a score of 30/50 for taxation for 2024 from https://nomadcapitalist.com/nomad-passport-index/ (United States and South Africa and Eritrea get 10, North Korea and Turkmenistan get 20) but I'd be suspicious of anywhere with a lower rating than 30.

[–] LemoineFairclough@sh.itjust.works -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Wealth tax does not block economic growth, rather the opposite, because it forces wealth to be reinvested to not lose too much value.

Do you have a source for this? I see that "wealth taxes have failed in Europe", and it seems that places with a wealth tax were mostly in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264290303-4-en

One example that caught my attention is Belgium, which introduced an "annual tax on securities accounts", which suggests that they were taxing resources that were invested already.

I can imagine that it's possible for government spending to produce more economic growth than would have happened without taxation, but the entire point of money is to have a multitude of people working towards prosperity in ways that can't be predicted by state authorities, so if there are more taxes it seems likely that economic growth will be reduced.

Of course, an analysis would have to account for things like using resources from a wealth tax to make cheap/free healthcare available, which might then make people vastly more productive such that any negative effects of a wealth tax are neutralized. Also, providing an obviously higher quality of life might be worth some cost.

You clearly need a lesson in proportional taxation if you think people would have their personal property appropriated.

Is a car or shirt or house personal property? It seems things like that are seized in response to people not paying revenue services: https://home.treasury.gov/services/treasury-auctions https://www.treasury.gov/auctions/treasury/gp/index.html https://www.cwsmarketing.com/?p=36139 https://auctions.cwsmarketing.com/auctions/1-9DDP42/gp-dayton-nj-live-wsimulcast-august-21 https://auctions.cwsmarketing.com/lots/view/1-9DE12Y/wearing-apparel-riverside-ca

I do see that items had bids much higher than I'd expect, and they were being auctioned at the same time watches and jewellery and electric motorcycles and trailers, so I suspect any clothing was "luxury" in some way, or the auction was for more clothing than is documented with pictures.

I do not give a fuck about you placing your dignity in ownership of material assets, that is a you problem.

I reference "dignity" because it's part of "the unshakeable foundation of the Republic of Poland", and thinking about dignity seems like a good way to tell if something is a bad idea, and I probably wouldn't feel like I had more dignity than 1 month ago if I was having my car or house seized because I hadn't paid as much taxes as a revenue service thought I should. I expect that you will have more trouble implementing policies you like if you express that you're disregarding dignity.

The top 10% pay less income taxes as a fraction of their income than the bottom 10%.

I expect that this is true.

Really, we should remove the capitalist class because they will fight back to the detriment of everyone else.

I'm certainly for social change, and people with entrenched interests will probably try to hamper it. However, other people might not want to cooperate with you if you remind them of the Soviet Union, and I expect that saying "we should remove the capitalist class" will do that.

I do not give a fuck about the IRS. I am not an American. My country actually has a wealth tax.

If you don't care about the IRS, why are you talking about a wealth tax using English? I suspect that that the majority of people who speak English as well as you do are U.S. citizens, so I'd assume you were interested in speaking to U.S. citizens. Are you trying to talk to people in Europe / worldwide in a common language?

Who is the target audience for your messages? I'm interested in where/how you're focusing your efforts.

You are repeating misinformation and capitalist propaganda with little understanding of what you are saying. Have you even reflected on what “the economy” really is? If you are a trickle-down Reaganomics-follower, you might want to get your brain checked.

What misinformation am I repeating? I wouldn't have written a statement that I don't think is true, so I suggest you point out anything you think is incorrect and explain your perspective, and maybe share a URL for some more interesting sources.

Note: I originally pressed "Reply" too early by mistake, so I edited this text. Originally I had only written "Is a car or shirt or house personal property?" and one URL.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The (then) right-wing Norwegian government (left-wing by US standards ordered a study because they wanted to claim this. The results (source in Norwegian, use a translator) were the opposite of what they wanted.

For example: "the businesses used more money on their workers when the stock owners were subjected to higher wealth tax" (paraphrasing here).

Is a car or shirt or house personal property?

Yes.

I reference "dignity" because it's part of "the unshakeable foundation of the Republic of Poland"

Yea, not sure I care about the right-wingers in Poland either.

cooperate with you if you remind them of the Soviet Union, and I expect that saying "we should remove the capitalist class" will do that.

Well, I think we should be honest about our intentions, unlike the capitalist class that tell you "brown people" or "the economy" is the reason they pay you slave wages.

What misinformation am I repeating? I wouldn't have written a statement that I don't think is true, so I suggest you point out anything you think is incorrect and explain your perspective, and maybe share a URL for some more interesting sources.

The part about seizing personal property to pay taxes, for instance. A progressive tax system can have bottom tiers paying no taxes. The right are those who impose high tax rates on the middle class and poor, in order to make them hate taxes.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The top 10% as a whole pays 71.22%, while the bottom 50% of taxpayers account for only 2.89% of all income taxes.

This is misinformation, because it paints a picture of the rich being hard done by.

The bottom 50% pays an actual tax rate that is a higher percentage of their earnings than the top 50%. The richer you are, the more opportunity you have to reduce your tax burden. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-much-poor-actually-pay-taxes-probably-think

Your own numbers are an indicator of massive income disparity.

[–] LemoineFairclough@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think the tax system in the USA is designed to reward people who form corporations and then get people employed. People who are employed don't have as much time to work on reforming institutions, so giving a tax break for employing people makes powerful people's lives easier. In order to keep this process revenue neutral, earned income is taxed instead of taxing business as much. After extracting money from people's labor (since labor is clearly necessary in order to create wealth), the remainder of budget needs is made up from whatever resources are easily available (which is currently the assets of rich people, since they have been given a lot of money to get people employed).

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah dude. The value of these corporations in inflated or neutral at best. Corporations pop up that are solely created to shelter or exploit to expand wealth.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's not actually higher:

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-income-tax-data-2024/

Top 1% pay 25.9% of their income to taxes, bottom 50% pay 3.3%

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

That doesn't take into account non federal tax.

https://itep.org/who-pays-taxes-in-america-in-2024/

This says it more explicitly.

using a more realistic definition of income that includes unrealized capital gains, they found that the same 25 Americans paid just 3.4 percent of their income in taxes during that period. If unrealized capital gains were included in these estimates, ITEP, too, would calculate a much lower effective tax rate for the rich

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Also, reported income is not the same for regular people and the top 1%. Tax evasion techniques makes it seem as if they have way less income than they really have.

EDIT: I do realize some of this could be incorporated into the statement of your quote above.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah dude it's all a game :/

[–] iopq@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Can I pay my rent with unrealized capital gains?

[–] chebra@mstdn.io 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

@iopq Not you.. but yes it's possible and generally it creates financial bubbles. Basically using your capital as collateral on your mortgage. An example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpV1FS-gRZw (4:50)

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But then I'd have to take out loans to pay my taxes which is absurd. I'll have to pay taxes on money that I don't physically have

[–] chebra@mstdn.io 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

@iopq You asked about rent, not taxes. They actually avoid taxes in this way. And yes, using money they don't physically have is exactly the source of all financial bubbles.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm saying you can't pay with paper money, you must pay with real money for everything.

I'm not against considering loans against unrealized assets as realization (with stepped up basis) since the person taking out said loan can use it to pay said tax.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

People do this exact thing all the time. Taking on debts to keep cashflow or avoid taxes is normal.

If you are just sitting on unproductive assets instead of realising their value in some way, you are doing the wrong thing.

You should be able to gain revenue from the asset or it wouldn't have appreciating value.

All your comments don't make sense, it's like you just want to take from the economy without giving anything back.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I forgot the most obvious example:

If you bought a house for $200,000 and when you retire it's worth $1,000,000 the government shouldn't demand you pay a percentage of your "gain" for the rest of your life or until you are forced to sell it.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why not

Taxes bad?

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You are saying you want to tax retired people with no income just because they have a place to live in. Should we kick them out for nonpayment of said taxes too? Because that's what would happen. It happens in states with property taxes, but now you want to take it national.

This is the problem with leftists. This message would be an extremely bad electoral platform.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Zero cashflow retirees are not a thing.

ALL states have property tax.

You don't know what you are talking about if you don't understand how taxes are offset and credited. You are just whining about not wanting to participate in society.

Taxes pay for things, go get educated.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They have social security and some of them have savings. My mom is planning to retire in West Virginia and she's already planning on selling her current residence to build a house there. She chose a low property tax state on purpose.

At this point she would only receive social security and start to go through her savings to live. You want to start charging her federal taxes the moment her property is worth $1 more than what she bought it for, even though she's on fixed income.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yup. And then credit it against standard deduction rates so that 🤡s owning multiple unoccupied homes pay real amounts while your grandmother pays pennies

Like a normal tax system, you doink

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

She owns one home now and one plot of land. She doesn't own multiple unoccupied homes. She's also my mother, not my grandmother

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Are you a bot or something?

Please answer in ASCII semaphore or French if you don't know semaphore.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

I don't know French, but here:

O O O

Close enough?

[–] iopq@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Let's say I give $100,000 to a friend that starts a start-up. You claim after some years that investment is worth $1,000,000 and want me to pay $150,000 tax

I take out a loan for $150,000 because the startup didn't make any profit. The startup goes bust. I now have a $100,000 loss and I paid $150,000 in taxes. Thankfully I can write $3000 off on my taxes every year until I die!

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If the startup made no profit it would never be worth 1000000. You would only have a capital gain if value was realizable.

If you never made a dime from your initial 100000 investment you would sell off the asset at that point instead of paying taxes.

If you were too dumb to sell parts of your assets, and instead chose to be cash negative or fail to pay your taxes, you kind of deserve to lose everything because you were too stubborn to receive advice from anybody.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Amazon had its first profitable year in 2003. It was worth 21 billion dollars.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, but how much cashflow did it have, and how much in dividends did the individual stakeholders receive.

It never didn't pay it's taxes afaik

Edit: I'm fact checking myself, Amazon's strategy is reinvesting all profits to support further growth. They were never in a position like the other poster is describing.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

There were companies that didn't survive the dot com crash despite being worth billions. Amazon is a company you would recognize, even though a better company is pets.com

If you bought their stock you would be very rich for a very short while until it went bankrupt

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

https://ycharts.com/companies/AMZN/revenues_annual

For reference

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Did I say zero revenue? I said didn't make a profit. Lots of companies made money, but couldn't make more money than they spent. You can easily have an investment that is valued high that you can't cash out

Let's say you bought some stock now, at the end of the year it's worth $1,000,000 and you get charged $150,000 in April. Big problem, the brokerages stopped allowing you to sell the stock and it crashed down, so now your GameStop stock is worth $100,000

How do you pay?

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You don't pay... This is a solved problem, wealth gain/loss would work the same way as capital gain/loss

You can use a net capital loss to reduce your taxable capital gain in any of the 3 preceding years or in any future year.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/personal-income/line-12700-capital-gains/capital-losses-deductions/you-use-a-capital-loss.html

It feels like people that don't like this don't actually know how to whole system is supposed to work.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Canada?!