Jeffrey L. Hoopes (North Carolina), What Do Tax Experts Think About California’s Billionaire Tax?:

This brief note reports the results of a survey of tax experts regarding California’s Proposition 40, a proposed one-time tax on billionaire wealth. Among 105 respondents, 69.5 percent opposed the proposal, including 71.0 percent of economists and 85.0 percent of accountants. Lawyers were more supportive, with 60.0 percent favoring the tax. Open-ended responses reveal concerns about taxpayer mobility, revenue losses, valuation difficulties, and administrative costs. The results contrast with the public endorsement of the proposal by six Nobel Prize-winning economists and highlight differences in opinion among scholars who specialize in taxation. Opinions about Prop 40 embed knowledge of the relevant empirical literature, interpretation of the empirical literature, and the values of the person holding the opinion, such that differences between groups in opinion might reflect any of these factors.

Conclusion
Six Nobel Prize-winning economists have endorsed Proposition 40. Among the respondents to this survey, however, economists and accountants who study taxes in their everyday work overwhelmingly oppose it, while lawyers are divided, marginally supporting it. Overall, surveyed tax experts would not vote for Prop 40.
Some of the relevant questions for assessing this piece of legislation are empirical. How many wealthy individuals will leave California? How much revenue will the tax actually raise? These are questions on which academic research can shed light. But whether the tax is desirable also depends on values, including how big government should be, who should pay for it, and how many economic resources we are willing to use up in the process of collecting revenue. Academic tax experts have expertise that can help answer the empirical questions, but their values are no more important than anyone else’s, even if they have likely thought about these tax issues more. However, in the end, considering both the empirical evidence they are aware of and their values, the tax scholars responding to this survey do not support Proposition 40 by a substantial margin.

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