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Ask HN: Would you make every country have a wealth tax like Sweden used to

by upmind on 1/14/25, 12:47 AM with 42 comments

• by LinuxBender on 1/14/25, 12:18 PM

  No. Wealthy people would just hide their wealth through a myriad of legal means. This would only affect middle and lower classes and their income is already taxed multiple times.

• by austin-cheney on 1/16/25, 4:17 PM

  I want a super draconian estate tax replace an income tax. Let people earn and spend however they wish, but when they die, or try to transfer it out of country, it all goes to the government. I see no reason to pass wealth onto heirs.

  I would also like to have restrictions to prevent access to consumer debt channels as they are economically regressive since they ultimately limit spending in the long term. Eliminating access to consumer debt will radically redistribute access to inventory availability. Many people, and accommodating businesses, would try to shift to a lease/rental model, but that is adjustable through high sales/property taxes.

• by gadders on 1/15/25, 6:12 PM

  Do other taxes go down to so that the overall tax taken across the economy is the same? The last thing the world needs is for governments to take more of people's money in tax.

• by d--b on 1/15/25, 1:33 PM

  People who say it's not possible are idiots.

  Wealth is currently taxed at death, so it's totally doable while people are living. Plus, regulations are fairly heavy in terms of disclosing one's wealth, so it shouldn't be that difficult.

  Sure some people will hide some wealth, but it's illegal, and the IRS is not really soft on tax evasion. "legal" evasion through offshoring and stuff is a problem but it's a problem for all taxes, not particularly wealth tax.

  Plenty of countries have implemented a wealth tax.

  In France, the current version only applies to real estate as a way to reduce real estate speculation and value storage and instead encourage investing in stocks and bonds.

  It's not stupid.

• by codetrotter on 1/14/25, 1:20 AM

  We have wealth tax in Norway and I think that's cool.

  I don't see why every country should have it though.

  I think it's nice that different countries have different rules.

  I don't see any point in having every country be exactly like every other.

• by nik736 on 1/14/25, 10:29 AM

  Depending on how the wealth tax is structured the "wealth" is most likely aready taxed, so there is no reason to tax it again. People have worked hard for their already taxed money.

• by uncomplexity_ on 1/14/25, 11:12 PM

  the rich always find ways to avoid taxes and the govt always find ways to juice it before reaching people.

  drop your ideals, see reality as it is, double down on the value you can bring on the world, and get paid relative to it.

  low agency people always find ways to allocate resources of other people, and never their own resources that they worked for and earned on their own. they always find reasons and excuses to justify it.

• by ActorNightly on 1/14/25, 8:07 PM

  You don't want to tax wealth. Most billionaires wealth is tied into equity, and forcing someone to sell a share of the company to pay tax isn't something that seems right. Its easy to justify this now where companies do things you don't like, and taxes seem good like this because it feels like punishment, but it could also be that someone owns a company that actually does good things, and paying taxes could mean that he/she over time looses the controlling interest.

  The thing that I would tax is ability to take out loans against assets - meaning that you have to pay equivalent capital gains tax if you use equity as collateral for a loan. There would be some exceptions if that loan goes into things like business expansion that directly leads to creating jobs.

  I would also tax inheritance transfer even in equity form.

• by jiriknesl on 1/14/25, 5:20 AM

  I wouldn't want it. Even if all countries implemented it, the first country that cancels it gets an advantage in attracting wealth.

  It's also inefficient, punishes good behaviours (saving and investing), requires the state knowing what everybody owns.

  If I was designing a tax system, I would try to tax directly where it is used. Car owners and drivers should fund roads, cyclists should fund bike trails, students should fund universities, insured people should fund healthcare, people living in towns should fund their waste removal, firemen, sidewalks, etc.

  This would create self-optimising loops where people would spend based on how much they really want something. More drivers paying for roads = more roads; more cyclists paying for bike trails and bike lines = more bike infrastructure.

• by muzani on 1/14/25, 6:43 AM

  I like the idea of this magical tax. There's a lot of unearned wealth that was stolen, illegal, through wars or various forms of corruption. Unfortunately, these taxes won't work on them. If they were obtained illegally or unethically, they can be hidden in the same way.

  For the most part, these kinds of taxes hurt the people who are being honest and declaring their wealth. Some billionaires are bad, some are good, and these will almost exclusively target the good ones.

  So in practice, no, unless the magic button fixes the loopholes that come with it.

• by rawgabbit on 1/14/25, 3:51 AM

  People have cheated on taxes from the beginning. The wealthier you are, the better equipped you are with “estate planning.”

  The wealthy would often donate the bulk of their wealth to the foundation which they had sole control over. This foundation would give “jobs” to their children and also provide loans for the owners. Another perk of the foundation is that interested people could also “donate” to the foundation.

  https://jacobin.com/2022/07/private-charity-wealth-inequalit...

  allows them to dip into the foundation’s “charitable” funds to take out loans or be compensated to the tune of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars

  TLDR If you implement a wealth tax, you will find rich people donating all their money to their private foundation.

• by GoldenMonkey on 1/16/25, 7:19 PM

  why is it always assumed the government should have all the wealth and money?

  Our government has been wasteful and reckless with what it has.

  Countless wars, political graft and corruption.

  When the government has all the money. It will look like china’s political class.

  All the wealth in the hands of the political class… why is this good?

  Everything in life is a tradeoff. there is no perfect world. Choose your poison…

• by giantg2 on 1/14/25, 11:09 PM

  No. Capital gains and income taxes are better ways to tax. Wealth is harder to measure, easier to hide, and not as liquid (generally).

• by baz999 on 1/14/25, 10:06 AM

  You would be happy to see those evil wealthy people taxed, would you? Believe me, only until you are considered evil wealthy person (doesn't matter how much you are making now you will be considered evil wealthy person by those who make less).

  Socialism, and by extension communism, are cancers.

• by Bissness on 1/15/25, 5:29 AM

  wrong place and people (tech and finance bros) to ask

• by quintes on 1/14/25, 3:08 AM

  Why do you want it?