ProPublica's tax story
 It’s very clear that the original article was a hit piece&#x2F;advocacy editorial more than anything else. If you don’t believe, go look at the cover of drudge right now, where he’s using it to go after his favorite target, Elon musk. (making a claim that even the pro Publico article doesn’t make).<p>All that said there’s a fundamental challenge here. People conflate unrealized wealth with income because loans offer a mechanism with cash today while deferring tax until later.<p>As  pointed out in many places, we target the 1% at the expense of not going after the .1% or even a .01%. I think it makes perfect sense for somebody to say that any loan that is backed by stocks granted on the basis of RSU, incur some additional special taxes. For all intents and purposes the principal is Realizing some of the value of the stock by getting a loan against a stock.<p>Unfortunately articles like this which conflate things actually make it harder for us to fix the real loophole.<p>Im fortunate to temporarily be a member of the top 1%, but not the top .1% or the top .01% my tax burden last year was 40%. That’s not including healthcare  or government fees. I’m fine with that, but the fact that both people earning more than I, and earning less than I pay less in taxes as a percent is incredibly irritating.<p>Articles like this will result in politicians blindly saying the rich need to be taxed more while the hyper Rich continue to skirt taxes.