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Billionaire Zara Founder Races to Spend His Ever-Growing Bounty

Spain is the only European Union country with a full-on wealth tax, forcing Ortega’s family office to rapidly invest dividends in order to skirt the levy.

Amancio Ortega — Amancio Ortega
Photographer: Iago Lopez/AP Photo

By

Rodrigo Orihuela,

Macarena Munoz Montijano and

Benjamin Stupples

March 24, 2023, 5:00 AM UTC

Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega has a problem most of the world’s super-rich don’t.

Every year, the biggest shareholder of Zara owner Inditex SA has to rapidly invest the billions of euros he receives from the world’s largest retailer of affordable fashion — or face the prospect of handing over a chunk of those proceeds in wealth taxes.