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by dharma1 2136 days ago
4 - Spain, Norway, Switzerland, and Belgium. I don't think it has stopped very wealthy people living in Switzerland or Norway in particular - but also I'm not sure how significant revenue it raises for the state.

I think it's becoming quite clear though that we need some more taxation on capital, particularly the rent-seeking kind, and more levelling of the playing field particularly in the field of education, which is primarily funded through taxes.

3 comments

Switzerland has a wealth tax, but it offers an interesting option for wealthy people - lump-sum taxation based on cost of living rather than wealth and income: https://home.kpmg/ch/en/blogs/home/posts/2020/04/lump-sum-ta...

So, their wealth tax is just for their "normal" earners. Don't glorify it or ignorantly use it as an argument.

Lump-sum tax only applies to foreigners, not Swiss nationals. Swiss wealth tax might be somewhat leaky, but still accounts for a non-trivial amount of tax revenue. https://voxeu.org/article/wealth-taxation-swiss-experience

I'm aware of Swiss taxation differences between different cantons, as well as the ability to negotiate your taxes. The OP mentioned wealth tax in Europe and my comment was in reference to that.

I'm personally not sure wealth tax is the best way to tax capital, but I wouldn't rule it out either.

I must have hit a nerve to warrant accusation of ignorance.

Norway is not famous for it's innovation or industry - much less than equally-populated Denmark and twice-as-populated Sweden with which it shares most culture, weather, genetics (and essentially also language). Neither are Belgium or Spain, and Switzerland, though more established, is no industrial powerhouse.

I do not claim that this is a result of the wealth tax, but it definitely doesn't attract innovators and industrialists.

The Netherlands too as far as I know?