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“We already tax property, capital gains and inheritance. We don't need a wealth tax too.”

Property, gains and inheritance taxes are different taxes from a wealth tax, and France lost €3 billion finding out

When France replaced its wealth tax with a tax on real estate alone, the state's own evaluators put the loss at €3.1 billion in 2018, and two thirds of former payers owed nothing. In Norway and Germany the top of the wealth distribution holds private business shares, not homes, and Sweden's tax fell on bank accounts, funds and houses while the biggest company owners sat outside it.

By Egalitaristen · Updated November 9, 2026 · 3 min read

These four taxes have different names for a reason. Each is charged on something else, at a different moment, and none of them is a tax on what a person owns.

#What each one reaches

A property tax is a yearly tax on land and buildings.^[5] The largest fortunes aren't held there. In Norway most of the wealth at the top is shares in private businesses.^[2] In Germany, real estate, businesses and corporate shares dominate the top wealth strata, and only the first of those is something a property tax can see.^[6] A property tax reaches the homes in that mix and none of the shares.

A capital gains tax is charged when an asset is sold, like income taxes in general, which are normally charged when income is realised.^[5] A gain on an asset that is never sold is never charged. The largest holdings aren't sold, so a tax on gains waits for a sale that doesn't come.

An inheritance tax is charged once, at death, on what is in the estate. The OECD says there is a strong case for having one alongside a wealth tax.^[5] It's a different tool, aimed at transfers. In the United States, to take one measured case, the 400 richest people who died in one study paid 0.8% of their wealth in estate tax if married and 7% if single.^[9]

A net wealth tax is charged on the whole stock, net of debts, every year. The OECD sets it apart from taxes on capital income and taxes on wealth transfers, and notes that, unlike a property tax, it covers a broad range of property with debts deductible.^[5]

#What happens when a property tax stands in

France ran the experiment. Until 2017 it had the ISF, a wealth tax. In 2018 it replaced it with a tax on real estate above €1.3 million. The ISF raised €4.2 billion in 2017. The new tax raised €1.29 billion in 2018, and the state's evaluators put the loss at €3.1 billion that year.^[1]^[7] Two thirds of the households that paid the ISF owed nothing under the new tax, and across all former payers the average bill fell from €8,000 in 2017 to €1,600 in 2018.^[1]

A real estate tax reaches real estate. The households that paid the ISF held their wealth elsewhere, and the replacement didn't reach it.

Norway and Sweden show the same thing from the other side. Norway's tax values a primary home at only a quarter of its assessed value, a 75% discount, while shares get a 20% discount.^[3] Sweden's repealed tax fell on bank accounts, funds and houses, while the exemption for unlisted shares left the owners of the largest private companies outside it, and the equality commission calls that strongly regressive because the largest fortunes consist so largely of unlisted shares.^[4] In both countries what a tax reached depended on what the law counted, and a property tax counts no shares.

#They work together

The OECD doesn't see the taxes as rivals. It says there is a strong case for an inheritance tax alongside a wealth tax, and that the case for a wealth tax is strongest where broad taxes on personal capital income and on inheritances are missing.^[5] The Mirrlees Review in Britain argued against the annual tax.^[8] On what the taxes are, everyone agrees: separate tools, aimed at separate bases.

A gains tax charged only on sale is not a broad tax on capital income at the top, in the countries where the effective rates there have been measured.^[2]^[9] The OECD's condition for a wealth tax is met.

#What follows

A wealth tax fills the gap the others leave. It's charged every year on the shares and private companies where the largest holdings sit, whether or not anything is sold or inherited. It sits beside a property tax on homes, a gains tax on sales and an inheritance tax at death. A country that has the other three loses nothing by adding the fourth.

#Who says so

The French story covers the ISF and the 2018 replacement in detail. The Swedish story and the Norwegian story cover what their taxes counted, and the first page in this series sets out what each tax reaches.

#Where to look next

The next page takes up the claim that a wealth tax will kill family firms and farms. The French story holds the sources for the figures on this page.