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My country (Norway) saw a lot of rich people moving to Switzerland because of more advantageous tax rules, so we actually did implement an “exit tax”!
To the surprise of no one, the rich people will not stop whining about it.
germany has a rule like that also, but people pretend like it doesn’t exist and rich people would leave if we tax them
Norway is awesome. I really admire your country
We’ve, as most of the world, been drifting right for a few decades unfortunately. The tax I mentioned was one of the main issues in last year’s election even though it affects nearly no one. That’s a sign of a small group gaining control of public discourse, which is not great…
“Billionaires will leave if you tax them.”
They aren’t paying enough to begin with as an overall percentage of the state’s tax, so what’s the difference if they leave?
If you tax them enough they won’t be billionaires anymore, so billionaires really wouldn’t leave.
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We wouldn’t need to. They have no survival skills. They survive by leeching off the rest of us. If we isolated them from us, they’d be dead inside of a year.
What is the downside?
Option 1) Billionaires and no tax revenue from billionaires.
Option 2) Lower housing prices because no billionaires and no tax revenues from billionaires.
Chuck em out the window and there’s a thousand people behind them willing and able to take their place.
So don’t close the window
Billionaires pay taxes? Is this new?
Putting a tax on billionaires leaving is actually a brilliant idea…
- Consistent: they made that wealth, in your country, so by the same principles of income tax, VAT, or corporation tax, we know the government believes it deserves a cut. All that money they take wth them is money the government was intending to dip into slowly over the course of 10 years or so.
- Targets a Loophole: Billionaires are of course uniquely positioned to relocate on a whim - normal people and even many millionaires will not be able to do this, as they can’t change jobs on the fly, get someone else to sell their house for them, remotely buy a house in another country.
- Motivates them to be better: the taxation of billionaires is ultimately about increasing the complexity of the system until they’re left with no choice but to be useful. But first we have to weather the storm of them trying to bribe the government not to tax them, before we can get there.
Honestly if they’re not paying for anything in the community anyway why do we care whether or not they stay?
I’m tired of 0.1% courting and worshipping that people do.
Massachusetts implemented a 4% millionaire tax in 2022 and a small capital gains tax. The results?
- extra $3b in tax revenue, extra $1.3b with the capital gains changed.
- passed a $2.5 billion infrastructure & education bill
- millionaires in Massachusetts actually grew because of the economic expansion
- collective wealth of the people in the state went up by 40% two years after it passed
It’s proven that it works. We just need policies that benefit people and not just the rich.
Some of the sources:
https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2025/04/29/millionaires-massachusetts-income-surtax-increase
But then how will Musk et al ever become trillionaires if they are taxed accordingly? /s
Worth remembering: the “they’ll leave” line gets used for any reform—so it’s healthier to ask for data and design policy around outcomes, not threats.
- Billionaires and millionaires want to live in safe places. Guess where it is safe? Where the general public has a good relative wealth. Guess what taxes causes…
I already bought it, you don’t need to keep selling it to me.
Good riddance. The perfect analogy is removing a brain cancer.
5 - You’re running cover for pedophiles when you say this.
That would be unconstitutional. Violation of freedom of movement.
No one is stopping them from moving, just pay the taxes they owe.
