I would think at a minimum that the government would have to accept shares if the taxpayer elected that.<p>You can't (IMO) reasonably ask someone to pay a cash tax based on a notional value for a transaction that never happened as that notional value will not account for the inevitable execution slippage that will happen if the shares are actually sold later. Let the government eat that slippage.
Right in the article they say that these billionaires are consuming their unrealized gains. Wouldn’t a consumption tax on luxury items be more effective and efficient?
These kinds of pieces never seem to mention that taxing unrealized gains will take control of the companies away from the founders. Love Musk or hate him, pretty sure nobody thinks Tesla is viable without Musk at the helm.
Taxing the unrealized gains doesn't seem like a good idea, however, taxing stock used as collateral for loans would be appealing since that seems a loophole to access the gains without realizing them for tax purposes.