TL;DW: Had to do more about exit tax than wealth tax.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I think the whole „wealthy exodus“ is completely overblown anyway. Good luck moving your entire business, real estate and other fixed assets abroad very quickly. Have fun paying all those exit taxes. Because those already exist in a lot of places.

    And that all is implying you want to leave over a wealth tax in the first place because something tells me you won‘t.

    Because this place made you rich in the first place. You are a huge winner in this system. This still works out for you. Leave to some place you know very little about and see where it gets you. More likely than not, you won‘t even seriously try to leave because by all means you are still a huge benefactor of this system.

    • HaiZhung@feddit.org
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      3 days ago

      Switzerland has a wealth tax which tells you all you need to know about this argument

    • Kissaki@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      I’ve previously about precedent that wealth exodus is not a thing. People stayed, for the most part - certainly to the point of meet gain.

      • WaxRhetorical@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Which is why this is one area where the EU needs to provide some framework/structure. To avoid Ireland situations as well.

    • huppakee@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Leave to some place you know very little about and see where it gets you.

      It’s not an either/or situation, you can stay and just move (a part of) your liquid assets to avoid taxes. A wealthy person cannot be divided over multiple body parts, but their wealth can easily and with barely any effort be spread over multiple places.

      Considering most western countries allow you to deduct your losses, you don’t even need to move your physical assets to avoid paying taxes. Just leave some bad investments in your country of origin and move your profitable investments abroad. If even a well known figure like Steve Jobs can could get away with paying $0 taxes, surely the lesser known of the 1% can realize that too.

      • fushuan@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        3 days ago

        Considering the state Steve Jobs is in… Was that an intentional suggestion to kill themselves? Just checking.

    • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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      3 days ago

      Good luck moving your entire business, real estate and other fixed assets abroad very quickly. Have fun paying all those exit taxes. Because those already exist in a lot of places.

      Companies could be moved pretty quickly, and once you move the company headquarter, most of the job is done, the business don’t need to move, simply the money generated goes somewhere else. Real problem could be the real estate, but that is solvable.
      Personal wealth ? Movable without too much trouble.
      It not quick in every aspect but it is doable.

      And that all is implying you want to leave over a wealth tax in the first place because something tells me you won‘t.

      I think this depend on where you live.
      In Norway probably you are right but we had other examples where rising tax on the rich ended with the rich fleeing the country. In EU there are countries that are “at war” over the retirees, trying to offer better taxation to attract them (basically because they know that even if they pay less taxes, living there they spend money anyway), so maybe it is not completely false that people would go where the taxes are lower.

      • geissi@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        Companies could be moved pretty quickly, and once you move the company headquarter, most of the job is done

        Wealth taxed are usually tied to the residence or citizenship of the owner, not where a company is headquartered.
        Typically, companies move their headquarters to tax havens to avoid business taxes, not wealth taxes.

        • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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          3 days ago

          Wealth taxed are usually tied to the residence or citizenship of the owner, not where a company is headquartered.

          True. But there are 2 things to consider:

          • residence and citizenship are not hard to change
          • often what is view as personal wealth is nothing more than a bank loan guaranteed by the share in the company/companies, so basically the wealth is debt.
      • Bo7a@piefed.ca
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        3 days ago

        It would maybe have been the same effort to type up some of those examples instead of just saying they exist. Where has this exodus already happened?

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    I didn’t read the article or watch the videotape but I’m gonna guess that peace reigned throughout the land and everyone’s quality of life improved.

  • ximtor@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    Aren’t the idiots from FRP trying to remove/reduce wealth tax? -_-

    And instead do shit like increase tax on cabin rentals…fuck you for not owning a cabin i guess.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    They tend to have other homes in different countries that they can go to very easily. They’ll just jaunt to their other home, to them it’s a hectic Tuesday.

    Also, a lot of these companies they own and/or bank with are international, and can be layered with many shell companies on top of that. Some have been around since the 1800s, they’ve had their wealth seized before, they are aware of this, and believe me, they have taken this into account.

    That’s the best case scenario, what of investors, all of those million and thousandaires? I think you will lose massive amounts of them from all over the world. Is that worth it?

    Tax them competitively together, nations alone weak, together strong is what Macchiavelli said or maybe Planet of Apes one or the other.

    • geissi@feddit.org
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      3 days ago

      what of investors

      Wealth taxes do not interact with investments.

      They tax personal wealth, not profits.

      Foreign investors who are not subject to your domestic wealth tax will invest in your country as long as it’s profitable enough.
      Domestic investors would be subject to a wealth tax regardless of where they invest and will also invest in your country as long as it’s profitable enough.

          • davetortoise@reddthat.com
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            2 days ago

            Ah, okay, I see what you mean. I suppose they might affect someone’s decision to conduct their investments as a citizen of a country with wealth taxes, if they have the financial means to quickly become a citizen of another country.

            To be clear, I do broadly support wealth taxes, I just think they need to be implemented quite carefully to be effective.

            • geissi@feddit.org
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              1 day ago

              I suppose they might affect someone’s decision to conduct their investments as a citizen of a country with wealth taxes, if they have the financial means to quickly become a citizen of another country.

              I honestly don’t understand what you mean by that.
              You don’t have to a citizen or resident of a country to invest there. Citizenship or residency has no influence on investment decisions beyond perhaps some sense of patriotism.

              • davetortoise@reddthat.com
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                1 day ago

                But people with the means to do so can change their citizenship and residency from a country with wealth taxes to a country without them

                • geissi@feddit.org
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                  22 hours ago

                  Yes, and I still don’t see how this is supposed to affect where they invest their money.