Europe's Ultra-Rich Could Fund a Substantial Part of the EU's Budget

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• Hacker News
• the budget doesn't have to be balanced, they can fund it with deficit
  by mono442
• EU needs more integration ("federalisation") as internal borders amount to something like 40% tarrifs… :/

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49075517

  by ktosobcy
• Europeans make around half of what similar roles make in US and pay up to 70% of their income in taxes (50% income + 20% vat). What are they spending all that money on?
  by AntronX
• I don’t agree with wealth taxes. The ultra wealthy will find the ways to avoid them and it will end up disproportionately landing on the middle class like everything else.

  If it has to be done, it should be at the sources of the wealth so that they can’t be dodged. Things like property taxes, corporate taxes, taxation of stock buybacks (which is a way to pay dividends without paying income tax on them). The middle class will still be paying these, but at least the ultra wealthy will be contributing on their share of the wealth generation too.

  by clickety_clack
• Unlike the US, wealth takes on the EU could perhaps raise revenue without disrupting innovation, because here in the EU, we have little innovation and self made wealth to begin with - so there's nothing to disrupt.

  But taxing inheritances would still be preferred mechanism rather than taxing unrealized gains I think. That would target the EU's unproductive rent seeking heirs the best.

  by Sol-
• The last thing the EU needs is a higher budget. Unelected bureaucrats that control a trillion dollar budget and have the ability to introduce legislation that supersedes national laws, what could possibly go wrong?
  by geertj
• > Europe’s Ultra-Rich Could Fund a Substantial Part of the EU’s Budget

  > Taxes on wealth, crypto and financial trades could raise billions no single member state can collect alone.

  The sad reality is that as soon as the EU introduces this, these families won't be Europe's Ultra Rich anymore. They'll soon be the UK/Swiss/Dubai/Israel/US Ultra Rich.

  What the EU needs is:

  - Less bureaucracy

  - One capital market

  - More venture capital

  What the EU doesn't need is a larger budget. Is is really an issue if a family has a net worth north of 100 million if 90% of that is invested (directly or indirectly) in future growth of the EU?

  > A financial transaction tax would not only generate additional revenue for the EU budget; it would also make short-term and speculative trading in financial markets more expensive.

  This goes *directly* against the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis. Potentially creating more friction and less efficient capital allocation in an continent already struggling with growth and innovation.

  > A tax on ultra-high wealth would have particularly high revenue potential. One possible approach would be a minimum tax for individuals with net wealth exceeding €100 million, ensuring that the taxes paid annually by this group amount to at least a specified proportion of their wealth. Such a tax would specifically target individuals whose effective tax burden is lower than that of other groups. At the same time, it could help to limit tax competition between member states for particularly wealthy residents.

  The biggest competition does not from member states, rather it comes from Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Two countries where citizenship is (for most ultra-rich) a plane ride and a few administrative meetings away. USA, the middle-east and Israel offer other options, slightly further away.

  by LaurensBER
• This is a shortcut for taxing unrealized gains.

  They start with NW >100 million and start decreasing the concept of Ultra-Rich until everyone non-broke eventually pays it.

  In Spain it happened with the Work Tax which from >60k EUR (68k USD) goes to 45% as if earning 3k EUR (3.4k USD) per month made you rich.

  by leugim