These wealthy Californians will be closely watching the results of the general election in November, when voters are expected to decide whether the California Billionaire Tax Act becomes law. If the measure qualifies for the ballot and is approved, it would impose a one-time tax of up to 5% on anyone with $1 billion in worldwide assets who was living in California as of Jan. 1, 2026.
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/powerball-winner-edwin-castro-net-worth-california-billionaire-tax/
California voters basically saying it is Trumps fault and want their meidicaid and healthcare problems to go away by taxong rich people.
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/california-billionaire-tax-ballot-measure-petition-signatures/
California's approximately 214 billionaires may have to get out their checkbook for a one-time tax that would place a 5% levy on their assets.
The California Billionaire Tax Act, sponsored by a labor union, would place a "one-time, 5% emergency billionaire tax" on those with $1.1 billion in worldwide assets who were living in California as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Supporters of the initiative announced in a Monday press conference that they have collected more than 1.5 million signatures on petitions that call for a statewide vote on the proposed tax, enabling the measure to appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. This is far more than the 875,000 signatures that were required.
According to the the Billionaire Tax Now coalition, led by the Service Employees International United Healthcare Workers West, which represents more than 120,000 healthcare workers, the tax is needed to offset the Big, Beautiful Bill passed by the Trump administration that they say will severely cut Medicaid, leaving 3.4 million in the state uninsured and increasing premiums for everyone else.
The group says the one-time tax will raise $100 billion—the amount they estimate was lost in federal cuts—over five years, with 90% of funds going to healthcare and 10% to public K-14 education and state food assistance programs.
The coalition also says the tax will keep emergency rooms, hospitals, and nursing homes open and staffed, and stabilize healthcare premiums for the average Californian.
The group points out that the estimated 214 billionaires who might be taxed can well afford it, saying that, in 1982, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans was about 2% of the country’s gross domestic product. Today, however, that stands at roughly 20% of GDP, according to published research.
The annual growth rate of a billionaire has been 7.5%, according to the labor group, five times that of the average worker.
"When healthcare is cut, it means longer emergency wait times, fewer healthcare workers, rural hospitals shutting down, delayed care, and lives lost that could have been saved," Mayra Casteneda, an ultrasound technologist and union member, said in a Monday press conference to announce the ballot initiative.
"Billionaires have seen their fortunes skyrocket even as food, rent, and gas prices have increased, crushing working families who are struggling to stay afloat," she said. "Hospitals are already cutting services, clinics are closing, and families are set to lose healthcare coverage. So we say those who have prospered here in California can afford to invest a little more to keep California running.
"It is a life and death situation. Most Californians—and most billionaires—recognize that this is reasonable and necessary. A very small group of the most controversial billionaires on the planet try to stop us. It is this David and Goliath battle—and David has just won the first round."
"Billionaires are making record profits and still getting billions in tax cuts," added Jared Hamil, a delivery driver and union member. "These billionaires pay less of their share of taxes than the millions of workers who are struggling to get by here in California.
"Every year, workers hear the same story: There's not enough to go around," he said. "Not enough to keep hospitals open, not enough to keep emergency rooms or clinics fully staffed, longer wait times at appointments … not enough money to invest in healthcare, public schools, food assistance programs, and programs to keep families out of crisis. But when it comes to corporate givebacks, the rules suddenly change. Billions are available for tax breaks that benefit the largest companies."
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Liz Perlman, executive director of AFSCME 3299, representing 25,000 healthcare workers, said, "Hospitals are closing and people will die. Why? So billionaires can get another tax cut that they don't need. It's immoral and needlessly cruel. This measure does one thing: It rights that wrong.
"Being taxed like everyone else will not hurt the billionaires," she said. "It will not reduce the number of yachts they get to waterski behind. But it will help our hospitals and the workers who have been unfairly punished by Trump's cruelty."
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California have come out in favor of the proposal. On March 2, the pair co-introduced their own proposed legislation, the "Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act," which would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires to help expand social welfare programs.
The campaign says the tax on the 938 billionaires in America—who are now collectively worth $8.2 trillion—could raise $4.4 trillion over 10 years.
Who are the California billionaires?
Thanks to being the country's technology hub, California is home to more billionaires than any other state, who together hold roughly $2 trillion in wealth. Among them are four of the world's wealthiest people: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Alphabet's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.
Huang has been sanguine about the possible upcoming dent in his bank account, telling Bloomberg Television: "We chose to live in Silicon Valley and whatever taxes, I guess, they would like to apply, so be it. I'm perfectly fine with it. It never crossed my mind once."
Huang, 61, the world's seventh-richest person with a net worth of $180 billion, according to Forbes, has reportedly spent roughly $55 million on piecing together an impressive real estate portfolio, which is said to include a $38 million mansion on San Francisco's Gold Coast and a $6.9 million home in Los Altos Hills near Nvidia’s headquarters, according to Mansion Global.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Google/Alphabet co-founder Brin, who has poured at least $45 million into efforts backing competing initiatives that would cancel out the proposed billionaire tax, such as a measure that would ban retroactive taxes and ban new taxes on personal property, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Brin, who is worth $264 billion, according to Forbes, making him the fourth-richest person in the world, reportedly owns a $50 million Malibu, CA, estate that he picked up in 2022. However, he has also lately decamped to Florida, snapping up a new $51 million Miami megamansion on Allison Island.
If the new proposal passes, Brin would get whacked with a $13.2 billion tax bill (at his current estimated net worth) no matter where he lived, provided he lived in California as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Along with Google co-founder Page, who picked up two Miami mansions for $173 million, Brin has reportedly been moving some Alphabet entities and assets from California to Florida.
Palantir and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, with an estimated net worth of $27.5 billion, shifted some of his family investment firm's operations from California to Miami in late December.
Thiel's company is still headquartered in Los Angeles, and he owns a home in the Hollywood Hills, but a press release announcing the opening of his new Miami office stressed that he has owned a residence in the city since 2020.
In late December, just before the Jan. 1 deadline, venture capitalist David Sacks opened a satellite office for his firm, San Francisco–based Craft Ventures, in Austin, TX.
Zuckerberg also recently bought a home in Miami, shelling out $170 million for a megamansion on Miami's "Billionaire Bunker" island—just three doors down from a staggering compound owned by fellow tech tycoon Jeff Bezos.
Zuckerberg also owns $112 million worth of homes in Palo Alto, and there is no news that he has sold them.
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Director Steven Spielberg also made the move to New York City in February, picking up an apartment in the San Remo. But records show he still owns his longtime abode in Pacific Palisades.
Other resident billionaires include Laurene Powell Jobs, investor and wife of Apple founder Steve Jobs ($16 billion) who reportedly has abodes in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Malibu; and Eric Yuan ($5.2 billion), founder of Zoom, who reportedly sold his San Francisco Bay Area mansion for $45 million in January.
It's not entirely clear how a billionaire would end up on the to-be-taxed list—billionaires tend to have wide-ranging assets, from stakes in private equity firms to hedge funds to properties all over the globe, bought with limited liability companies. Trying to accurately value billionaires' assets isn't necessarily an easy task.
But the coalition says that the franchise tax board would be responsible for valuing the billionaires and they would have a chance to disagree with their valuation. They can pay their tax in one lump sum or over five years.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has gone on record opposing the tax, warning that it could spark an exodus of the wealthy, whose millions in annual taxes are needed for the state.
"This will be defeated, there's no question in my mind," Newsom told the New York Times.
However, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says that while hundreds of millions might be lost, the "tens of billions" acquired in one fell swoop would make up for it.
The coalition also points to a 4% wealth tax passed in Massachusetts in 2023 for those with incomes over $1 million, which did not see the wealthy running for the exits. Since 2022, Massachusetts has generated $5.7 billion from the tax, which was spent on education and transport infrastructure, according to People's Policy Project.
The November ballot in California will see initiatives with competing sentiments.
Also qualified to be on the ballot is a measure that would repeal the "Mansion Tax," which is a 4% tax on the total transaction for property sales of $5.3 million to $10.6 million and a 5.5% rate for sales above $10.6 million.
Would Lotto Winner Edwin Castro Get Hit With the California Billionaire Tax?
BY KIRI BLAKELEY
MAY 3, 2026
California resident Edwin Castro is the biggest lottery winner of all time, after hitting a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot in 2022. But would he be liable under a proposed California law to tax the wealth of billionaires?
The answer, it turns out, is complicated and far from clear. But Castro's case highlights the difficulty of pinpointing a taxpayer's net worth with precision under the proposed new law, which has a complex approach to valuing real estate holdings.
When Castro hit the Powerball jackpot, he opted for the lump-sum payment of $997.6 million. After paying federal taxes at the top marginal rate of 37% (California doesn't tax state lotteries), he would have walked away with around $629 million. But Castro's wealth story doesn't end theree.
An analysis by Realtor.com® estimates that Castro's current net worth is likely right around the crucial $1 billion threshold. For Castro and other wealthy Californians in this situation, who are potentially on the cusp of massive tax liability, the exact valuation and tax treatment of their assets by state tax collectors may become a vital question.
These wealthy Californians will be closely watching the results of the general election in November, when voters are expected to decide whether the California Billionaire Tax Act becomes law. If the measure qualifies for the ballot and is approved, it would impose a one-time tax of up to 5% on anyone with $1 billion in worldwide assets who was living in California as of Jan. 1, 2026.
"Once the Billionaire Tax Act is passed this November, individuals above the threshold $1 billion will be required to file a net-worth declaration with their 2026 state tax return," says the Billionaire Tax Now coalition, which sponsored the measure.
Estimating Edwin Castro's net worth
According to the Billionaire Tax Now coalition, led by a labor union, the proposed tax on the approximately 214 billionaires in the Golden State would raise $100 billion over five years, with 90% of funds going to healthcare and 10% to public K-14 education and state food assistance programs.
But how will the state identify these billionaires? The group points to "public data" and the Forbes real time billionaires list. Castro is not on the list, due to his take-home lump sum minus taxes falling short of the billionaire threshold.
However, Castro has had more than three years to make that $629 million grow. Could it have grown enough to make him a freshly minted billionaire, setting him up for a much larger than usual tax bill?
Most people with that amount of money don't stick it in a savings account earning scant interest, which would make it easy for the government to pinpoint their net worth.
Instead, Castro, like most high net worth individuals, likely would have diversified his money—perhaps putting it into the stock market, properties, businesses, investment funds, and more glamorous assets like yachts, cars, art, and gems.
Only Castro and his wealth advisers (reportedly, high school pal Jacqueline Dilanchyan runs his family office and helps manage his winnings) know where his cash went, but it's well known that the former architecture consultant has been snapping up real estate. His buying spree started in early 2023 and continued until at least April 2025.
There are his several trophy properties, which reportedly include a $4 million Altadena Japanese-style home for his parents, a $45.76 million Bel-Air mansion (which he reportedly picked up for "cheap," as it was originally listed for $87 million), and a $25.5 million Hollywood Hills manse.
There is also a $3.8 million waterfront Malibu house, which was reduced to concrete pillars and smoldering wood during the January 2025 wildfires.
Records show that 14 burned out plots in Altadena, where Castro used to live, were sold in April 2025 to Black Lion Properties LLC, Castro's real estate investment arm, headed up by his brother, Jesse. In total, records show he paid $10.4 million for them.
This brings his reported real estate holdings to a total valuation of about $74 million—factoring in that most of the properties have likely lost some value since they were purchased, according to Realtor.com data and estimates.
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While that isn't a trifle, the bulk of Castro's wealth seems to be elsewhere. He would have had approximately $536 million left after purchasing the properties. If he put that into the stock market, he would have hit a remarkable bull run that saw the S&P 500 nearly double since January 2023, when he had control of his winnings. This, even with a big dip in March when the Iran war broke out.
That $536 million in an S&P 500 index fund would be worth about $938 million today based on underlying gains alone. With all dividends reinvested, it would be closer to $975 million.
Adding his real estate holdings, that would take his net worth to around $1.01 billion to $1.05 billion—just above the crucial threshold for the proposed billionaire tax.
Of course, Castro likely didn't invest every spare penny that he hasn't spent on real estate, and may have indulged in significant purchases or donated some of his winnings to charity. And he would have had expenses to pay, and taxes on any investment gains he cashed out.
It's also possible that his investments have outperformed the benchmark S&P, putting him deeper into billionaire territory. But for the sake of an estimated net worth, it's plausible that Castro's total return on investment mirrored the S&P 500, putting him just above the proposed tax threshold.
With an estimated net worth below $1.1 billion, Castro wouldn't be hit with the full 5% tax, but his wealth might still be subject to a one-time tax of 2.5% to 0.5%, based on the provisions of the bill. That would add up to a tax hit of around $26 million on the high end to $5 million on the low end.
Realtor.com reached out to Castro's family office for comment but received no response.
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How real estate is treated in the tax proposal
Because Castro's real estate holdings are potentially what take him over the billionaire threshold, the tax bill's treatment of those assets will be crucial in his case, and others who are on the cusp.
The billionaire tax would explicitly exclude real estate held directly by a taxpayer in their own name or revocable trust from calculations of net worth. But a spokesperson for the Billionaire Tax Now group confirmed that real estate held by an LLC or other corporate entities would be included in net worth calculations.
Because all of the real estate properties publicly linked to Castro are owned by LLCs, they would likely count toward his net worth.
For taxation purposes, that's an unusual distinction, says Clayton Bland, chief wealth advisory officer for accounting and professional services firm CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), who has been advising high-net-worth individuals in California for 27 years.
Bland tells Realtor.com: "An LLC in California that has more than one owner is by default treated as a partnership; however, an LLC with only one owner is disregarded for income tax purposes and the items of income or expense are treated on the appropriate form.
"In other words, real estate in a single-member LLC is [typically] no different, from a tax standpoint, than real estate owned individually."
But this isn't the way single-member LLCs will be treated in the billionaire tax valuation process, Bland notes. "Real estate owned by a single-member LLC will not be excluded from an individual’s net worth under the proposed billionaire tax," he explains about the bill's language.
"Ultra-wealthy taxpayers might be tempted to argue that a 100%-owned, tax-disregarded LLC is tantamount to a sole proprietorship and should thus be looked through since the economic reality is the same as direct ownership," he says.
"However, absent any explicit provision to that effect, such an argument faces an uphill battle. The measure’s precise wording and structure—plus its authors' decision to mention sole proprietorships but not disregarded LLCs—indicate that a taxpayer's interest in a single-member LLC is meant to be valued like any other business interest."
The bill has other exclusions, including some retirement plans, and $5 million of "harder to value assets" such as intellectual property rights and nonpublicly traded financial instruments.
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Challenges of valuing a billionaire
For those like Castro whose assets hover near the threshold but are difficult to value down to the dollar, that task will be left to the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB).
"The initiative uses standard valuation methods already applied in federal estate and tax law. These are well established and routinely enforced by the state of California," says the coalition on its website.
But Los Angeles-based international family lawyer Alphonse Provinziano, who specializes in high-net-worth divorce, says that calculating a wealthy person's assets isn't usually straightforward.
"I work with estate planning professionals that have managed assets all over the world, with trusts in Bermuda, Switzerland, and offshore trusts," he tells Realtor.com. "The name of the game is asset protection."
As for how California's tax bureau will identify its billionaires, he says: "I think they're hoping to cast the net as wide as possible. Maybe they won't capture everyone, but if they can get a fraction, that's probably what they're looking for in terms of the tax revenue."
He notes many of his high-net-worth clients are moving from California to tax friendly states such as Florida, Nevada, or Texas that allow for anonymous ownership, then establishing trusts.
"There will be a certain contingent of people who will pay the 5% and move on, but a lot of people will say they can spend a million dollars on lawyers and fight it, and if they win, they save a lot of money," he says.
"There's going to be a lot of time and resources spent by the Franchise Tax Board and the Attorney General's Office going after people, but that takes money away from other things—like prosecuting criminals."
Financial planner Melissa Pavone agrees that the FTB has its work cut out for it.
"How net worth is calculated is where things get nuanced," she tells Realtor.com. "Illiquid assets, privately held businesses, concentrated stock positions, deferred compensation; these aren't straightforward to value or plan around."
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Who's next?
The wealth adviser Bland said his concern is that the billionaire tax is a slippery slope that will eventually see asset taxation trickle down to nonbillionaires.
"The legal framework and administrative machinery [for the new tax] will now exist, allowing it to expand further without an additional vote," he says. "It's plausible that over time the threshold will move from a billion to down to a $100 million. There are thousands of households that meet that threshold in the state. And tens of thousands with a net worth of over $10 million."
"Once California has the valuation rules, the reporting system, and the audit teams, the challenges or the marginal cost of expanding it from $1 billion to $100 million is very, very low."
He says it is difficult to know how the valuations will play out—especially for those who aren't clearly above or below the threshold.
"What's really important is just how unprecedented this really is," he continues. "This isn't income tax or capital gains tax. The core concern is valuation risk."
"There's the potential for overtaxation if valuations are too high."
Contacted by Realtor.com, the FTB wrote in an email, "We don't comment on proposed ballot initiatives, but FTB is aware of this measure and is tracking its progress."
The labor coalition also says that a billionaire would have an opportunity to disagree with their valuation. No doubt, many will.
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California is all fucked up.
Seems like a thief/grift state regarding taxes and programs.
Everyday regular voters are all sorts of wrong also.
The gimme gimme gimme state.
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/powerball-winner-edwin-castro-net-worth-california-billionaire-tax/
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/california-billionaire-tax-ballot-measure-petition-signatures/
This is probably causing a lot of people to not sleep well?
Relating to
FARA
Obama
So many tentacles this one can lead to and touch?
Didn’t Kim K have some bags of money dealings with Jho Low?
pb notable
>> 24569096 Fugees rapper reports to prison to begin 14 year sentence for funneling foreign cash to Obama campaign
pb notable
>>24569096 Fugees rapper reports to prison to begin 14 year sentence for funneling foreign cash to Obama campaign
The Crew of NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission Reveals What They Saw on the Dark Side of the Moon
<I see the NASA pr team have their fake actors going on all the talk shows now, Americans eat all this slop?
Kek
No wonder you all got duped into taking a clot shot vaccine, retards.
https://youtu.be/beMevPTyNB0
LEVITY: The Opposite of Gravity (Erased from Science)
11,090 views · 4 days ago
#gravity #truth #science
NASA Fakes Going Back to the Moon?
92,761 views · 4 weeks ago
#artemis2 #artemis #nasa
https://youtu.be/8lEr8kb9u84
@Taylor88911
8 days ago (edited)
When you take your kids to a magic show, they get angry after you tell them how the tricks are performed and that magic isn't real. It's the same with the public and the government. People want to be deceived. People want false flags. People want fake terror. Hollywood has been tuning their parasympathetic nervous systems to be activated by this shit since they were 7 - alien invasions, wars, explosions, doomsdays, apocalyptic scenarios, gov interventions, space explorations, etc. People like and identify with a lot of these stories from Hollywood they consume - it lights them up inside and makes them feel like kids again. So, if reality mirrors that reality back to them full of comic book tropes, or whatever sci-fi futurology fantasy they want to live in, they feel very validated and alive. They feel like they're an active participant in the mars or superhero movie they watched at age 14. That's mostly why people want to be fooled and consume this propaganda, especially nerds. By an absolutist definition, it's a type of modern religion that's more controlled by the State than anything in our history. That's why the governments and space programs don't really care anymore about you posting this stuff. They know these people have become the equivalent of being religious fanatics now - just look at all the Marxists they've created since the smartphone was invented. So even if these governments, themselves, admitted 80% of things are fake and orchestrated by them - straight to everyone's faces - these fanatics would still be in denial! They would accuse the current administration making it up and be in total denial of the past being made up. They're truly indoctrinated, and it's all their own choosing. And relatively speaking, we're still only in the beginning stages of all this. They're going to continue to push this crap (probably with more trauma/terror elements since public crisis is the best opportunity for change/reset). And I imagine such a thing will either progress people's delusions further on, or make them snap out of the trance (more likely). The closer the elites get to their demonic finish line of whatever it is they're aiming for, the harder it is for them to get there and cross it. That's how it works when you mess with demonic shit. The first mile of the marathon is always easiest; the last mile is near-impossible to pull off perfectly. So, good luck to them… Artificial and fake energy like this always ends up collapsing in on itself and showing it's full hand. Authenticity will win the war without even a fight.
edit: One more thing… Sure, some of this may be aimed at a deeper spiritual or occult play. That element probably exists. But I don’t think blind control for evil’s sake is their main driver. The real fuel is that there’s enormous money in engineering and predicting mass behavior. Lots of money can be made in markets, investments, bets, and entire industries when you can predict how people react to fear and manufactured crises. Greed remains the primary motivator. This is what the film The Cabin in the Woods is all about.
On April Fool’s Day, NASA officially launched their Artemis II rocket claiming to take humans back to the Moon in 2026. Going “back to the Moon,” however, would require us having actually gone there before, which myself and many other researchers have debunked beyond any shadow of a doubt in several previous videos, showing that the original NASA Moon landings were faked in a studio on Earth. So, now, over 50 years later, with half a century of technological developments, Artemis II isn’t even claiming to land on the Moon like Apollo, but merely flying by…
https://youtu.be/8lEr8kb9u84