Taxes to Soar 200% for Rich Colombians in Bill Inspired by Thomas Piketty

When Colombia’s new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, unveiled a plan to impose a wealth tax on the rich just hours after being sworn in, the alarm bells rang only so loudly in the fashionable neighborhoods of Bogota and Medellin.

This sort of tax is nothing new here. The country has had one, on and off, for decades. And besides, at first blush, this one looked an awful lot like the old ones: a 0.5% tax rate on assets above about $600,000 that would climb to a 1% rate on assets over $1.1 million.