A new EU report on taxation in Europe tries to tackle the issue of making the tax system “fairer.” The report laments that: a) Europe is losing its share of millionaires and billionaires and b) despite high taxes rates, the rich in Europe don’t pay enough taxes so Europe needs “heavier reliance on wealth taxation.”

Here are some of the proposals:

• a higher tax on realized capital gains

• a new tax on unrealized capital gains, i.e., the increase in the value of stocks you didn’t sell

• an annual tax on wealth holdings

• a tax on gifts and inheritance

• an exit tax on the wealthy who try to leave

What’s almost comical is the study laments that the rich are leaving even though these nations already have some of the highest income tax rates.  Yet they still conclude that new wealth taxes will “have minimal negative impact.” Right.

They can’t seem to connect the dots that the EuroZone’s high tax rates are a major reason that the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is stagnant, and the rich have escaped to America, Dubai or the Cayman Islands.

Our friend Sven Larson does a great job of calling out all this Euro-gibberish.