Biden has proposed a new wealth tax that would tax unrealized capital gains of millionaires. Meanwhile, Democrats in at least six states, including New York, California, Washington, and Maryland have proposed taxes on wealth. In the case of California, this wealth tax would even be imposed after the resident has moved to another state.
How have these “sock it to the rich” taxes worked out around the world? Here’s a good analysis from Citizens Against Government Waste:
“In 1990, there were 12 European countries that had imposed a wealth tax on their citizens, but only three still have such a tax. In France, the wealth tax led to an “exodus of an estimated 42,000 millionaires between 2002 and 2012.” In 2020, President Emmanuel Macron repealed the tax. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the wealth tax, “was expensive to administer, it was hard on people with lots of assets but little cash, it distorted saving and investment decisions, it pushed the rich and their money out of the taxing countries—and, perhaps worst of all, it didn’t raise much revenue.”
https://www.cagw.org/
We would add that Sweden ended its wealth tax for the same reasons.