Estimate it. As I clearly said, it is mostly about increasing transparency, for a greater understanding and better policy tomorrow. Turn those that hide their wealth from the tax authorities into criminals, while making compliance easy and cheap/mostly free.
Some countries now require you to pay a yearly future-tax-contribution on financial investments, which is then corrected at time of sale (eg. potential for a tax refund after selling a stock after it had a very bad year). Good or bad, I don’t know.
Sure, their accountants will have a little more paperwork, on top of their current workload. There is a cost to that. But if the total is well under the wealth tax threshold, there’s no tax and little risk of an audit that re-evaluates it’s worth. And if they are above it, then a small % of the excess will incur a tax.
If it is ever discovered that they failed to declare wealth (owned or controlled), THAT is when a penalty tax comes in, and they might find themselves obliged to pay $2mil in the US for that painting in Switzerland.
There is of course much more complexity to implementing this well. International treaties would need to be changed, to align reporting requirements and to limit loopholes that enable foreigners to avoid reporting and tax obligations (eg. an automatic wealth tax on foreign held assets in the absence of a tax treaty). There’s cost there too.
This kind of thing gets discussed occasionally, but so far hasn’t gained traction. Realistically, I don’t expect it to.
Estimate it. As I clearly said, it is mostly about increasing transparency, for a greater understanding and better policy tomorrow. Turn those that hide their wealth from the tax authorities into criminals, while making compliance easy and cheap/mostly free.
Some countries now require you to pay a yearly future-tax-contribution on financial investments, which is then corrected at time of sale (eg. potential for a tax refund after selling a stock after it had a very bad year). Good or bad, I don’t know.
I’m not sure that’s how taxes work, though.
Sure, their accountants will have a little more paperwork, on top of their current workload. There is a cost to that. But if the total is well under the wealth tax threshold, there’s no tax and little risk of an audit that re-evaluates it’s worth. And if they are above it, then a small % of the excess will incur a tax.
If it is ever discovered that they failed to declare wealth (owned or controlled), THAT is when a penalty tax comes in, and they might find themselves obliged to pay $2mil in the US for that painting in Switzerland.
There is of course much more complexity to implementing this well. International treaties would need to be changed, to align reporting requirements and to limit loopholes that enable foreigners to avoid reporting and tax obligations (eg. an automatic wealth tax on foreign held assets in the absence of a tax treaty). There’s cost there too.
This kind of thing gets discussed occasionally, but so far hasn’t gained traction. Realistically, I don’t expect it to.