Draft The wording, numbers and structure of this page are still being revised and will change.

“Why tax wealth at all? We already tax income, spending and property.”

In every country measured, the very richest pay a lower effective tax rate than the people just below them

In France in 2016 the effective direct tax rate was 46% for the top 0.1% of households and 26% for the top 0.0002%. In Norway and Sweden it falls from about 50% for the upper middle class to 15% to 20% at the very top. Studies in the Netherlands and the US find the same drop. Different countries, different tax systems, same shape.

By Egalitaristen · Updated November 9, 2026 · 5 min read

Every country taxes what people earn, what they spend, the home they own, the assets they sell at a profit, and what they leave to their children. Where researchers have measured what the very richest actually pay, the same pattern turns up: the effective rate climbs through the middle and upper middle of society and then falls at the top. In France in 2016 it was 46% for the top 0.1% of households and 26% for the top 0.0002%.^[1] In Norway and Sweden it drops from about 50% for the upper middle class to 15% to 20% for the top 0.0005%.^[2] A study in the Netherlands puts the top 0.0001% below 20%, and in the United States the 400 richest paid 24% of their economic income in 2018 to 2020, against 30% for the whole population.^[3] These are four countries with different tax systems and the same shape. The cause is how our taxes meet the way the biggest fortunes are held.

#How the biggest fortunes are held

At the top, wealth is mostly shares in companies the owner controls. In Norway most of the wealth at the top of the distribution is shares in private businesses.^[2] In Germany, real estate, businesses and corporate shares dominate the top.^[6] In Sweden the richest 2% control close to 10% of all jobs and 15% of the value created in the economy through private businesses.^[7]

A company can keep its profit. In Norway and Sweden, personal holding companies shield about half of dividend payments from income tax.^[2] In France, the retained profits of a household's companies count as its income, and the corporate tax is the only tax that reaches substantial rates for billionaires.^[1] The rich do pay tax, through their companies. The gap opens in the personal taxes.

#What each tax reaches

An income tax reaches income when it lands in the owner's hands, and a company that keeps its profit sends none. A tax on spending reaches a fortune only as fast as its owner spends it. A property tax is a yearly tax on land and buildings.^[4] A capital gains tax is charged when you sell, so an asset held for decades is never charged.^[4] An inheritance tax is charged once, at death. The OECD adds that a net wealth tax is a different thing from taxes on capital income and taxes on wealth transfers.^[4]

None of them is charged on the holding. A wealth tax is: a yearly tax on net wealth, covering a broad range of property with debts deducted, charged whatever the assets earned that year.^[4] The OECD says the difference in one sentence: income taxes are normally charged when gains are realised, a wealth tax as value accrues, and it can cover both income-producing and non-income-producing assets.^[4]

#Where the wealth is

The World Inequality Database puts the top 1%'s share of net personal wealth in 2024 at 23.5% in Norway, 27.5% in Sweden, 27.7% in France, 27.9% in Germany, 31.5% in Switzerland, 34.8% in the United States, 39.2% in Colombia and 40.5% in Uruguay.^[8] National statistics give other numbers: Statistics Norway counts 21.7% for the top 1% of households in 2024, and the Swiss tax administration counts 45.8% of taxable net wealth for the richest 1% in 2022.^[9] Whichever source you use, the range is huge, from 22% to 46%. Across 18 OECD countries the bottom 40% own 3% of household wealth and the top 10% hold half.^[4]

#What a wealth tax does differently

Every tax we use hangs on an event: wages are paid, goods are bought, an asset is sold, an owner dies. A fortune can avoid the event by holding shares for decades without selling them. A wealth tax hangs on the holding, and the holding goes on every year.

The rate is small because the base is large. A 20% tax on a 5% return is the same as a 1% tax on the stock, as one British review of tax policy worked out.^[5] The rates in force are of that order. Norway charges 1.0% above NOK 1.9 million and 1.1% above about NOK 21.5 million, in its 2026 tables.^[10] Colombia charges 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% on net wealth above 72,000 UVT.^[11] Net wealth taxes raised between 0.2% of GDP in Spain and 1.0% in Switzerland in 2016, and Norway's raised 0.59% in 2024.^[4]^[12] Switzerland collects the most because its thresholds are lower and its base broader.^[4]

#The OECD's doubt, and the answer

In 2018 the OECD wrote that there are limited arguments for a net wealth tax in addition to broad taxes on capital income and well-designed inheritance taxes. It added that there are stronger arguments for one where those taxes are missing.^[4] Look at the countries measured above. They don't tax capital broadly at the top: effective rates fall to 26% in France and 15% to 20% in Norway and Sweden.^[1]^[2] The OECD's own condition for a wealth tax is met.

The old taxes also failed where they were badly designed, and that is an argument for better design. Norway's absorbs barely 1% of income at the top, because shares in private businesses enter the base at only a tenth of their market value.^[2] France capped its tax against income, which kept it from fixing the drop in rates at the top.^[1] The answer is to value everything at market value and cap nothing against income. Scrapping a tax doesn't fix its valuation rules.

#What people think

The site's Resources page lists 36 polls from 26 countries.^[13] In an Ipsos survey of 22 countries in June 2024, support for higher taxes on the wealth of the rich was 74% in India, 69% in Brazil, 68% in South Africa, 78% in Türkiye and 86% in Indonesia.^[14] The questions differ from country to country, and the Resources page gives each wording. National polls add 70.6% in Spain for a tax on assets of €10 million or more, 75% in Britain for 1% above £10 million and 2% above £1 billion, and 86% in France, in a poll for the Socialist Party, for 2% above €100 million.^[15]^[16]^[17]

#Who says so

Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez wrote several of the studies behind the figures above, and the directory lists the politicians, economists, unions and campaigners on the record in each country.

#Where to look next

The next page takes up the claim that Europe tried a wealth tax and gave up on it. The country stories for France, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland hold the sources for the figures on this page, and the calculator shows the scales.