Some have already gone. The “impuesto de solidaridad a las grandes fortunas” raised just €632m in 2022, representing 0.1pc of all taxpayers in Spain.
Despite the relatively low yield, Labour’s union paymasters are already calling for the UK Government to follow suit. The Tax Justice Network claims as much as £24bn a year could be raised from the UK if it copied Spain’s model.
They’ve said they’ll copy Spain’s model but have calculated the income by not following Spain’s model. They’re to tax all the things that Spain doesn’t tax – family companies, close companies and so on.
Jus’ lyin’
A wealth tax can’t raise *per year*, as once you’ve taken the wealth it’s not there to tax any more.
Year 1: We’re going to take 10% of everything you have. Ok, here’s 10 zarbles.
Year 2: We’re going to take 10% of everything you have. Ok, here’s 9 zarbles. What gives? You paid 10 zarbles last year! Yes, but now I only have 90 zarbles left, here’s 9 zarbles. Next year you’ll get 8.1. EVIL CAPITALISTS SUBVERTING THE TAX SYSTEM!!!!! GIVE US YER FEKKING MONEY!!!!!
Conversely, if all the countries start doing this, then they’ll quickly run out of places to run to.
Not saying that’s a good thing – just that it might happen. For example look how few countries there are which don’t tax incomes.
@jgh
They’re not interested in hare-&-tortoise percentages. Every year they want 10 zarbles until they own all of your wealth. And you’ll be happy, see.
It hasn’t occurred to them that after 10 years you’ll stop paying them any zarbles because you no longer own anything, that they own stuff which is useless to them, and their tax base has dried up.
@jgh & Norman
You’re overlooking that wealthy people don’t hold cash they hold assets. So assets have to be sold to pay tax. Since there’s fewer buyers of assets, thanx to the wealth tax, asset values fall. Which reduces people’s wealth.
BiS:
I think they might be counting on inflation from all their spending to make up for that. At least nominally, but then they sometimes count that and sometimes don’t.
@bis
Really that’s my point. You can’t actually tax assets: Trying to tax them directly requires taking an increasing share of the ownership of them. Tax has to be paid in money. That money must come from income or sale of assets. If you’re a pensioner with little income and your only real asset is ownership of your primary residence, how are you going to pay an asset tax? You can’t other than by selling your house. To whom? Then where are you going to live?
I will say the Tax Justice Network can’t be all bad as they are subject to severe criticism from Richard Murphy, and by virtue of him being the closest thing to Pure Evil in the blogosphere they must be doing something right.
Nevertheless they make the classic mistakes that he makes in all his thinking.
– The notion that changes in the tax environment have no impact on behaviour, or that the absence of the impact being visible in the first ten minutes after the change is made means there’ll be no term impact
– The thought that the revenue from a one-off change can be replicated ad infinitum.
Ultimately, their philosophy is one that everything belongs to the state, ultimately including you. It’s a philosophy that has killed hundreds of millions globally. And that’s why it’s a philosophy that should be rejected utterly.
Greed: desiring other people’s money to be used for your own purposes.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods.
@Van_Patten: Have you heard of the Narcissism of Small Differences?
You’re overlooking that wealthy people don’t hold cash they hold assets.
No, they hold vast piles of gold coins and jewels that they ski down. I’ve seen pictures!
Tom J
I was aware of it due to having a Corbynite relative who gives me Murphy’s works as a Christmas present but I think when you are dealing with someone as violently evil and as transparently delusional over his own limitations as Murphy it comes into sharp focus.
@Van-Patten, Not really… TJN wants the same things as the Potato of Ely.
It’s just that they refuse to let His Sageousness run their ship in mindless sycophancy that has attracted his Divine Wrath and ex-cathedra Condemnation.
Same idiocy, different helmsmen.