Every Crisis Is An Opportunity... To Dream Up New Ways To Tax The Workers

The Quarantine Zone
1

White collar staff reaping the financial benefits of working from home should be taxed to help other workers who aren’t getting the same advantages, experts at Deutsche Bank said in a new report.

While I certainly understand the need to help people suffering economic dislocation from the pandemic and the changes that will persist in its aftermath, I can think of better possible revenue sources. For instance – since the name “Deutsche Bank” has come up – perhaps a levy could be assessed on profits from money-laundering and tax-evasion schemes.

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That seems horrible for the environment. I wonder if, once you factor in the externalities that carbon-consuming workers impose, albeit involuntarily, on the environment by their commute that are not baked into the gasoline tax, if you should be taxing the workers less if they work from home.

3

Yeah, how about instead of taxing me, you tax my employer who gets to cut costs at the office?

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There’s also the externality of increased virus transmission.

5

Taxing working from home would just encourage people to not do so. Ideally, you want people to work from home if that is possible.

6

I came across another response to this inane proposal that brought something into focus:

Is this more about property owners getting worried about empty space in cities?

I suspect that this is hitting the nail squarely on the head – (the legitimate potion of) Deutsche Bank’s business is taking a bath on the commercial real estate market.