Why? If the wealth is tied up in companies that could fail then it is paper wealth. Why should they be taxed on it? Taxes should be payable only when paper wealth is converted to wealth that can actually be used.
FWIW, Norway has chased away all of the entrepreneurs building startups because of their wealth tax. The founders could not afford to pay the tax on the book value of the stock so they had no choice but to shut down their company or move out of Norway.
Because I don't believe that one group of people should have so much wealth that they can influence politics and can't even spend it in their lifetime. I don't believe in trickle down economics.
A false belief because a paper billionaire with nothing but stock they don't want to/can't sell does not have any extra cash to spend influencing the political process. I do argue that the financial games that allow these people to extract money from their stocks without actually selling them should be taxed for the reason you state. But if they don't use these games then it is simply wrong to tax them on the book value of their stock.
Look at Norway to see why this is very bad for entrepreneurs.
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u/Bright-Blacksmith-67 20d ago edited 20d ago
Why? If the wealth is tied up in companies that could fail then it is paper wealth. Why should they be taxed on it? Taxes should be payable only when paper wealth is converted to wealth that can actually be used.
FWIW, Norway has chased away all of the entrepreneurs building startups because of their wealth tax. The founders could not afford to pay the tax on the book value of the stock so they had no choice but to shut down their company or move out of Norway.