Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Politics

Democrats Love a Wealth Tax, But Europeans Are Ditching the Idea

  • Most countries who had wealth taxes have abolished the levies
  • Warren’s wealth tax would be larger than those Europeans tried
Iran Bazaar Sees Rush to Dump Rial as Sanctions Hurt Economy

Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg

By

Updated on

Democrats are busy finding new ways to tax the rich. The most straightforward way to do that -- an annual tax on household wealth -- is an idea with deep roots in Europe that several 2020 hopefuls are hoping to import to the U.S.

Yet of the 15 European countries that tried a wealth tax in recent years, only four still employ it. Most of those governments ultimately were underwhelmed by the amount of revenue raised and overwhelmed by the difficulty in collecting an accurate tax.