The few investigations following the aftermath of the Panama papers recovered a couple of billion dollars after several years of investigation.<p>The estimated evasion _in_the_EU_ using these off-shoring vehicles in Panama is around 100 to 200 billion. [0]<p>The 2023 Defense spending of the entire EU member states was about 270 billion.<p>What will happen is income taxes will increase for high earners who cannot evade income tax. And the 'super' rich will continue to own nothing on paper.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/116947/20170412_panama_papers_study_final.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/116947/20170412_panam...</a>
Those who don't learn from the past... <<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/07/16/old-money-new-money-flee-france-and-its-wealth-tax/49ac2ec7-c1b2-423e-a89b-699750275cd4/" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/07/16/o...</a>>
There’s an opening, right? Right or wrong, our (USA) allies are a little skeptical of the us at the moment, and France does still have a defense industry. If they can kick it into high gear and start selling more arms to their fellow Union-members, Europe can arm itself, and France will get some nice middle class engineering jobs.<p>Seems great for everyone other than US defense contractors.
They're both trying to do <i>wealth</i> taxes, rather than (more) income taxes.<p>I suppose that could be interesting for wealth that isn't liquid?
France seeks to solve its reckless spending problem by increasing taxes on the rich, and setting up yet another rediscovery of the Laffer curve? I can hardly believe it!
Oh no, the rich are leaving. Hope they manage to fit their assets into cabin baggage.<p>High paid workers, due to their skills are way more mobile than asset owners. I can be a software engineer in the Bay or Canary Wharf, but if I am a real estate tycoon, it’s not like I can take British homes with me to the US.
Europe needs to pay for its defense since the US is no longer willing to fund it. So it's either higher taxes (on people who can ostensibly afford it) or removing social programs.<p>Since the latter is absolutely political suicide, there is an attempt to do the former.<p>What's the worst that could happen? It's not like the rich pay taxes anyway - they just setup foreign shell companies (a la Panama papers).
Tax the assets, make the game fair for everyone - for both workers and people living off wealth. Only then we will see wealthy people start to create new productive assets. It doesn't matter if they leave - their assets will still be in our countries. If they don't want them - we will have someone not as greedy own the assets that will benefit all of us.
The super-rich are already leaving Britain[1] so realistically if they want to raise more money they'll just tax workers a bit more since they're less economically mobile. No matter how much European politicians try to deny it, the Laffer is real, and long-term uncompetitive tax policies are not good for government income.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/millionaire-exodus-same-as-losing-half-a-million-taxpayers/#:~:text=An%20exodus%20of%20millionaires%20from,number%20who%20left%20in%202023." rel="nofollow">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/millionaire-...</a>
French oligarchs will flee to the Galt's Gulch the neo-monarchists are building here in the US. Then, when the US electorate wrenches control back, they'll all get the same treatment here. Eventually they'll end up in Dubai.<p>Authoritarian regimes aren't very pleasant places to live, which is why Russian oligarchs send their families abroad.<p>Eventually they will have farted in all the elevators and they'll have to sit in their own stink.
Hollande tried to do this in France (75% effective rate on earnings above a million Euros).<p>Even his staunchly socialist regime had to admit its failure and abruptly reverse course in 2014, two years later. The tax raised just €260m in 2013 and €160m in 2014…. But caused an exodus of wealth and job creators
This whole rearmament talk makes me sick, it is as if Trump and the MIC have already won. Especially in Germany being affronted for questioning rearmament is insane.