Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[TwelveInchPianist]

Happy New Year!

[Mr. Bumble]

Ditto!

[Commenter_XY]

Happy New Year, TIP, and Happy New Year to the rest of the VC commentariat. My hope is that 2026 brings good things to all of you.

[Kazinski]

I was musing about California's proposed billionaires tax, and I think I see a major flaw.

First of all its very likely the US government can't do a billionaires tax because they can only tax income not property under the constitution.

But States can tax properly and they can likely set tiers of property valuation and tax rates. So they can tax a billionaire's property.

But can states tax a billionaire's out of state property? I would think not.

So lets take the case of Mark Zuckerberg, who is a multi Billionaire who lives in California. His income can all be taxed, but his primary assets are Facebook stock. Facebook is a Delaware corporation. Certainly FB pays property taxes on its assets in California, but Zuckerberg doesn't own those assets, his primary asset is an out of state corporation. Under what theory can California tax Zuckerberg's Delaware properly?

[Michael P]

Under the theory that he's subject to California law, essentially.

There might be some argument if different states tried to tax the same wealth, but government ultimately acts as a stationary bandit.

[Kazinski]

I don't think that works.

For instance Larry Ellison owns 98% of the Hawaiian Island of Lanai, which is by itself worth several billion dollars. If Larry Ellison was still a California resident can California tax that property?

I don't think it can.

[Michael P]

Well, yes, real property is different than personal property. Stocks are intangible personal property. And Hawaii taxes real property, at least in most cases. (I don't know how it treats Lanai specifically.)

[Malika la Maize]

January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1930 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1925!

On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon.[3] The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2026/