> the article does not say that "the wealth taxes generated less revenue than the ordinary income taxes would have." The loss of income tax revenue from the d

> the article does not say that "the wealth taxes generated less revenue than the ordinary income taxes would have." The loss of income tax revenue from the departure of the wealthy was twice as much as the revenue generated from the wealth tax from all of those who didn't leave. Therefore the tax was a net negative, hurting French finances to the tune of 7 billion euros of lost revenue as a result of the tax[2] "The revenue it raised was rather paltry; only a few billion euros at its peak, or about 1% of France’s total revenue from all taxes. At least 10,000 wealthy people left the country to avoid paying the tax; most moved to neighboring Belgium, which has a large French-speaking population. When these individuals left, France lost not only their wealth tax revenue but their income taxes and other taxes as well. French economist Eric Pichet estimates that this ended up costing the French government almost twice as much revenue as the total yielded by the wealth tax."[1] > Those who are extremely wealthy actually do not tend to pay much in income taxes, especially outside of the US In France they certainly do, but they did not pay much in wealth taxes due to the difficulty in collecting the tax. And here we have the main problem. Perhaps there is debate about how many tax refugees left and how much capital left the country -- that's fine. But is the purpose of the tax to hurt the rich or is the purpose of the tax to raise money? There is no debate about how much money the tax raised, regardless of whether you agree with Pichet's study. The money raised is known and was just 5.2 billion euros in 2015[2]. For all of France - a nation whose 2015 GDP was 2.2 Trillion euros. And this was a tax valued at 0.5% for all wealth above 1.3 million and an extra 1% for wealth above 10 million euros (so two rates of .5% and 1.5%). So even if you disagree that the net effect was negative because you don't agree with Pichet's methodology, there is no disputing the tax was ineffective at raising money. [1] https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/france-tried-soaking-the-rich-it-didn-t-go-well-1.1347875 https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/france-tried-soaking-the-rich-it... [2] https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/education/2021/02/11/lessons-from-history-france-s-wealth-tax-did-more-harm-than-good/ https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/education/2021/02/11/le...