In the New York Times, Joshua Rauh (Stanford Hoover Institute) and Benjamin Jaros (Stanford Hoover Institute) have published a guest essay titled, “It Failed in France. It Would Be a Disaster in California.” From the piece:
To many, the 5 percent wealth tax on California’s ballot this year may sound like a harmless way to raise money, a proposal only billionaires would dislike. Yet leaders from across the political spectrum oppose the plan, including Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the California Teachers Association and Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
The critics are right. A quick look at the math underpinning the proposal, which would tax the accumulated assets of ultrawealthy Californians, shows that the first net wealth tax in modern U.S. history would provide the state little and endanger its economic core.
Other countries have made the same mistake Californians are being tempted to commit. In 1990, 12 industrialized countries levied a wealth tax. By 2025, nine had repealed theirs — including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and France. These nations discovered that wealth taxes are hard to carry out, cause wealthy people to move and take their money elsewhere and raise far less tax revenue than promised.
More from TaxProf Blog:
- Newsom Floats Federal Wealth Tax After California Deal Fails (June 29, 2026)
- Clouse et al.: California’s Billionaire Tax Act Threatens Growth and Fails to Address Structural Deficits (June 24, 2026)
- California Billionaire Tax Qualifies for November Ballot (June 23, 2026)
- WSJ: Rich Californians Are Finding Creative Ways to Get Ahead of the Billionaire Tax (June 22, 2026)
- NY Times: Union Behind California Billionaire Tax Offers to Reduce the Rate (June 19, 2026)
- Boll, Saez, and Zucman on California Billionaires (May 26, 2026)
- Some Actual Facts on California’s Billionaire Tax (May 4, 2026)
- The Push to Get California Billionaire Tax on the Ballot (March 3, 2026)
- California’s Wealth Tax and Billionaire Psychology (February 3, 2026)
- Solana: The Great California Wealth Exodus (January 27, 2026)
- Galle et al.: Expert Report on Valuation of Controlling Shares of Publicly Traded Companies Under the California Billionaire Tax Act (January 21, 2026)
- NYT: Newsom Vows to Stop Proposed Billionaire Tax in California (January 14, 2026)
- Galle, Gamage & Shanske: Correcting the Record: Responding to Some Legal Arguments About the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act (January 9, 2026)
- Washington Post: California Will Miss Billionaires When They’re Gone (January 2, 2026)
- WSJ: Threat of California Billionaire Tax Draws Criticism from Ultrawealthy (January 2, 2026)
- Tax Notes and Shanske on California’s Proposed Billionaire’s Tax (November 18, 2025)
- WSJ: The California Campaign to Introduce a First-of-Its-Kind Billionaire’s Tax (November 14, 2025)
