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Wealth taxes may become a necessity as AI eliminates opportunities for employment. But it still feels wrong, since it is basically a retroactive tax on what peo

Wealth taxes may become a necessity as AI eliminates opportunities for employment. But it still feels wrong, since it is basically a retroactive tax on what people have worked for and earned already. The rates and thresholds really matter for it to be fair. > The rate starts at 1.7% for those with net wealth of €3m, rising to 3.5% for fortunes over €10m. It is payable on worldwide assets. An almost 2% rate on wealth of less than 10M feels wrong to me. These are mostly people who have worked hard to become rich and it is taking away what they deserve IMO, after they already worked for it under one set of rules. I feel like the thresholds should be more like 100M and above. Also it doesn’t seem appropriate to tax worldwide assets. Why should Spain have any claim to someone’s assets in some other location entirely, especially for this type of retroactive wealth tax?

tpmoney 1y ago
> Why should Spain have any claim to someone’s assets in some other location entirely, especially for this type of retroactive wealth tax? It's the only (easy) way to make a wealth tax like this work. If you don't target total assets regardless of where they're held, dodging the tax is as "simple" as moving your assets out of Spain. You could implement complex "exit" taxes for foreign asset transfers and purchases, but a flat "we will tax everything you own, everywhere" is simpler.
blargey 1y ago
> The 60/20 Rule is a lesser-known provision that can help limit your total Wealth and Solidarity Tax liability. Under this rule, your combined tax on income (IRPF) and Wealth/Solidarity Tax cannot exceed 60% of your taxable income. However, the tax cannot be reduced below 20% of the original amount. Seems the effective wealth tax rate for single-digit millionaires is closer to 0.34% than 1.7% in practice. ref: https://www.skyboundwealth.com/news-and-insights/spanish-wealth-tax-solidarity-tax-what-hnw-residents-and-expats-need-to-know-in-2025 https://www.skyboundwealth.com/news-and-insights/spanish-wea... (Also worth mentioning since some commenters seem to have missed it: Spain has two wealth taxes, the older "wealth tax" and the recent "solidarity tax". The older wealth tax had been functionally abolished in several regions, and the new solidarity tax effectively replaced it, with higher asset thresholds.)

tpmoney 1y ago

> Why should Spain have any claim to someone’s assets in some other location entirely, especially for this type of retroactive wealth tax? It's the only (easy) way to make a wealth tax like this work. If you don't target total assets regardless of where they're held, dodging the tax is as "simple" as moving your assets out of Spain. You could implement complex "exit" taxes for foreign asset transfers and purchases, but a flat "we will tax everything you own, everywhere" is simpler.

blargey 1y ago

> The 60/20 Rule is a lesser-known provision that can help limit your total Wealth and Solidarity Tax liability. Under this rule, your combined tax on income (IRPF) and Wealth/Solidarity Tax cannot exceed 60% of your taxable income. However, the tax cannot be reduced below 20% of the original amount. Seems the effective wealth tax rate for single-digit millionaires is closer to 0.34% than 1.7% in practice. ref: https://www.skyboundwealth.com/news-and-insights/spanish-wealth-tax-solidarity-tax-what-hnw-residents-and-expats-need-to-know-in-2025 https://www.skyboundwealth.com/news-and-insights/spanish-wea... (Also worth mentioning since some commenters seem to have missed it: Spain has two wealth taxes, the older "wealth tax" and the recent "solidarity tax". The older wealth tax had been functionally abolished in several regions, and the new solidarity tax effectively replaced it, with higher asset thresholds.)