Comment by throwaway2037
2 days ago
Norway, Spain, and Switzerland have wealth (net worth) taxes. Why don't we see the same outrage from rich people living there? Also, most billionaires get rich with equity in a business that they built. How else can we tax that net worth?
Not only that but they are actively moving into these countries, because, like everybody, they like a functioning government that provides infrastructure, housing and health care for their citizens. This makes for much more livable cities and a happy society.
Actually, in Norway there is some outrage. Many people with (a lot of) money move to Switzerland. There is also the issue that startups are being taxed on "paper money" — the value of the firm on paper based on expected future income — even though they have not yet started earning money.
From what I can find, the top wealth tax rate in Norway is about 1.1%. That seems pretty dumb to leave your home country to avoid paying 1.1% tax per year. For entrepreneurs that now have enormous equity (100s of millions of Euros), my sympathy is low. They can easy sell a tiny fraction of their equity to investors to pay the wealth tax.