[Rinzler89]

>¹ Leaving aside that both numbers are high to begin with; 48% for anyone above €82k ridiculously so. That's no way to treat your productive population.

Most EU countries (where Portuguese also happen to emigrate to) also tax their high earners equally high: France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Sweden, even Romania lol. and people there aren't rioting because of it. Only few countries have low-ish taxes or offer tax breaks to immigrants: Luxembourg, Netherlands are the ones that come to mind.

I doubt lowering the taxes for high earners is the solution that will fix all of Portugal's problems, as much as HN loves to see low income taxes fore them as an universal band aid for the entire economy, as if the entire economy is just tech workers and nothing else.

Maybe Portugal should first make itself more attractive to investors to come and create jobs, and spend its existing taxes more wisely at making life bearable for local low earners to stay and work there especially healthcare workers, before trying to become a tax heaven for high earning laptop tourists who will only spend money on nice rent and expensive cocktails but will fuck off the moment the gravy train stops.

[jahnu]

Exactly. Corruption and efficiency of government are much more important as far as I can see. But they can’t be expressed easily in single numbers like tax or gdp so few seem to be great at campaigning on changing them and then actually changing them.

[jajko]

Taxes for rich are never any significant contribution to economy, not for places we talk about. They please poorer voters though, some sort of schaden freude that keeps the focus away from corruption, inefficiencies and massive structural problems in economies and lack of will or skill to tackle them by politicians (and lets be honest, 4-year election cycle ain't enough to fix big problems anywhere even for the best ones, especially if next voted government wipes it clean).

But what taxing rich accomplishes is that all those investors and high flying managers who are very smart and well educated in tax systems avoid such place as much as they can. Thats why Depardieu run off to Russia from France and its draconic system. And so did many others, ie to Switzerland, one of most famous is Alain Delon. And thousands of other, less known or unknown yet rich names.

It may be un-intuitive for unaware, but really don't punish your wealthy too much, they can leave almost anywhere and they often do to protect their wealth. Punish them just enough that masses are happy and rich don't leave. Its a fine balance that is unique for each nation and changes over time.

I don't have simple easy recipe for this, nobody has. But seeing a lot how rich actually think and behave, simple knee-jerk reactions almost never achieve intended effects down the line, state fights uphill battle with often smarter and better equipped folks.

[Rinzler89]

>Taxes for rich are never any significant contribution to economy, not for places we talk about

Where was I talking about taxes for the rich?

>Thats why Depardieu run off to Russia from France and its draconic system.

Yeah, I'm sure the average French working class citizen suffered a lot from loosing Dépardieu to Russia, let them play you the world's smallest violin for that tragic loss.

Pretty sure the French citizen cares way more about retaining and attracting the likes of Datadog, Airbus and Renault who actually create skilled well paying jobs, than a entitled fat cats like Dépardieu who don't create any jobs.

[Saline9515]

Depardieu is an important investor, he created and owns multiple companies in France.

https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/1073815-20130104-gerard-dep...

[JetSpiegel]

Is the number of sallaried employees smaller than the number of companies? I bet it is.

Every film is technically a company, it's easier to account for expenses that way.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Most EU countries (where Portuguese also happen to emigrate to) also tax their high earners equally high: France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Sweden, even Romania

Until about €10 to 25mm, at which point the tax shenanigans the EU affords would make the Congress blush. (I’ve seen exemptions that couldn’t apply to more than one family, and that was in Sverige.)