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Venezuela has a wealth tax on the books, and only the very richest owe it

Since 2019 Venezuela has charged an annual tax on the net wealth of its largest taxpayers. The threshold is 150 million tax units, about USD 40 million when it was last priced in dollars, and the rate has stayed at 0.25% since the start.

Venezuela is one of the few countries where a wealth tax is not a proposal or a memory but a form people file every autumn. The law dates from July 2019, and in 2023 a tax adviser's note called it the fifth year of application.[3] Seniat, the tax authority, opened the filing period again on 1 October 2024.[5] The map shows Venezuela in gold for that reason.

What the law says

The tax falls on individuals and companies that Seniat has classed as special taxpayers and whose net wealth reaches 150 million tax units.[3] Net wealth means everything owned on 30 September, minus debts and encumbrances.[3] Residents are taxed on assets at home and abroad.[7]

The 150 million figure is the corrected one. The first text, published on 3 July 2019, set two thresholds, 36 million tax units for individuals and 100 million for companies, which the press put at about EUR 250,000 and EUR 650,000.[1][2] The reprint of 16 August 2019 replaced both with a single, far higher line.[3]

The rate is set by the Executive within a range of 0.25% to 1.5%. It has been 0.25% since the first year.[3] The tax is not deductible against income tax.[3]

What counts is listed. Real estate at home and abroad, shares, vehicles, yachts, aircraft, jewellery, art, gemstones and securities are all in the base.[2][4] Property is valued at the highest of its cadastral, market or updated purchase value, and listed shares at their 30 September price.[4] If an owner holds an asset through a financial lease, the lessee pays, not the bank.[4]

Some things stay out: the main home, household goods, labour benefits, farm assets used in primary agriculture, and an artist's own unsold work.[3][6] A family's house, furniture and wages are never touched.

What the threshold means

In October 2023 the tax unit was Bs 9, so 150 million units came to Bs 1.35 billion, about USD 40 million.[4] By September 2025 the unit was Bs 43 and the line stood at Bs 6.45 billion.[6] At the 2023 dollar value, the lowest-rated owner pays 0.25% of USD 40 million, about USD 100,000 a year. At the 1.5% the law allows, the same owner pays USD 600,000.

Nobody with a salary, a flat, a car and a shop gets near this. Presenting the first text, with its lower lines, Andrés Eloy Méndez, who chaired the Constituent Assembly's economy commission, said it would cover about 2% of the companies that issue invoices, which hold close to 90% of the country's assets.[1] The corrected line is higher, so the group is smaller and richer. His summary of the whole idea was short: whoever has the most pays the most, and whoever has the least pays nothing.[1]

Where it came from

In January 2017 the government floated a 1% levy on large capital as part of an income tax reform. On 7 September 2017 Maduro told the Constituent Assembly that a tax on large fortunes would be created.[10] The Assembly approved the law as a block on 2 July 2019, without voting article by article.[1] It reached the Gaceta the next day.[2]

The reason given was money. Méndez said the law would raise revenue outside oil, help close the fiscal deficit and, in time, allow regressive taxes such as the 16% value added tax to be cut.[1] That last aim matters. Seniat's domestic taxes brought in 679 billion bolívares in September 2026, USD 810.54 million at the exchange rate used.[9] A larger share of that money from the owners of the biggest fortunes is the point of the tax.

Who is on the list

The tax follows Seniat's list of special taxpayers. On 21 October 2026 acting president Delcy Rodríguez announced that the list had been cut from more than 132,000 names to 44,000. Small shops that never qualified came off, and large companies that had been avoiding the category went on.[8]

That matters for the wealth tax, because only a name on the list can owe it.[3] A shorter list, aimed at the biggest firms and fortunes, fits a tax with a threshold of USD 40 million.

Who backs it

The tax was made by the movement in power. Besides Méndez, the register lists Orlando Camacho, the constituent who presented the law and said large fortunes do exist in Venezuela and should contribute to the nation.[2] Tania Díaz, first vice-president of the Assembly, signed the law, and Diosdado Cabello, its president, signed the notice that reprinted it.[3]

The idea also has friends beyond that chamber. Economist Pasqualina Curcio asked the National Assembly elected in 2020 to review the tax on large fortunes, and cited Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty as economists who call for higher wealth taxes.[11] In May 2023 Luis Eduardo Martínez, a deputy of the National Assembly, announced a wealth tax bill for Venezuelans abroad, to bring their foreign assets into the open.[12]

The objections, answered

"It will not raise much"

In 2017 José Guerra, then head of the National Assembly's finance commission, said a tax like this would not bring in significant revenue.[10] The answer is in the threshold. Wealth in Venezuela is concentrated: when the law was presented, about 2% of invoicing companies held close to 90% of assets.[1] A tax on the top of that pile has a base worth taxing, and the law lets the rate rise from 0.25% to 1.5%, six times what is charged.[3] Revenue is for the data to show, and here Venezuela owes its citizens something: Seniat's notice on the 2024 filing gives no revenue figure.[5] A wealth tax should publish what it raised and from how many payers each year. The tax is not the problem. The silence is.

"Seniat decides who is a target"

Acceso a la Justicia argued in July 2019 that because Seniat names the special taxpayers one by one, the tax could be aimed at political enemies, and that valuing assets under hyperinflation would be arbitrary.[7] A tax can be written so that the person's name does not matter. The statute already sets the line at 150 million units, and a rule that says everyone above it files removes the choice.[3] Valuation is already specified: the highest of cadastral, market or updated purchase value.[4] The cut in the list in October 2026 shows how the category can be tightened to the very large.[8]

"It came from the wrong assembly"

Critics point out that the Constituent Assembly, not the National Assembly, made the law.[7] That is a reason to have the National Assembly vote on it, and a deputy of that chamber has already announced a wealth tax bill.[12] It is not a reason to drop the idea. A tax is judged by its threshold, its rate and its exemptions. Venezuela's are a very high line, a 0.25% rate and a protected home.[3][6]

"It will scare off investment"

The same 2019 criticism said the tax would be passed on to consumers and discourage investment.[7] But a tax on net wealth is paid by the owner of the assets on 30 September. An owner at the threshold pays about USD 100,000 a year at the current rate.[3][4] Against USD 40 million of assets, that is a small yearly bill.[3][4]

What a better Venezuelan wealth tax would do

  1. Publish the take. Say each year how many filed, how many paid and how much was raised.
  2. Use the rate band. The law allows up to 1.5% and has charged 0.25% for seven years. The Executive can lift it without a new law.[3]
  3. Keep the line high and fixed. Everyone above 150 million units files, whether or not Seniat has listed them as a special taxpayer.[3]
  4. Let the National Assembly vote it. Martínez has shown the road.[12]
  5. Fund the swap. Méndez named the goal himself: cut the value added tax as wealth taxes grow.[1]

Where to look next

The map shows Venezuela, the directory lists everyone on the record and method lists the sources. A country with a different history is Guyana, which dropped its property tax for individuals in 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2017 President Nicolás Maduro tells the Constituent Assembly on 7 September that a tax on large fortunes will be created. It had first been floated in January as a 1% levy on large capital.
  2. 2019 The Constituent Assembly approves the law on 2 July. It is published in Gaceta Oficial 41.667 the next day and reprinted on 16 August with a single threshold of 150 million tax units.
  3. 2023 The fifth year of the tax, with the rate still at 0.25%. On 9 May Deputy Luis Eduardo Martínez announces a bill for a wealth tax on assets held abroad.
  4. 2024 The tax authority, Seniat, opens the filing and payment period on 1 October, with the deadline at 30 November.
  5. 2025 The tax unit stands at Bs 43 in September, which puts the threshold at Bs 6.45 billion.
  6. 2026 On 21 October acting president Delcy Rodríguez announces that the list of special taxpayers has been cut from more than 132,000 to 44,000, with large companies added.

Sources

  1. El Español / EFE, La Constituyente chavista aprueba un impuesto a los grandes patrimonios (3 July 2019)
  2. El Universal, En Gaceta Ley de Impuesto a los Grandes Patrimonios (11 July 2019)
  3. Forvis Mazars Venezuela, InfoMazars 09-2023, Breves comentarios sobre el Impuesto a los Grandes Patrimonios
  4. Forvis Mazars Venezuela, InfoMazars 10-2023, Valor de los bienes gravados por el Impuesto a los Grandes Patrimonios
  5. Seniat via the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Seniat inicia plazo para declaración y pago del impuesto a los grandes patrimonios (2 October 2024)
  6. Nayma Consultores, Claves para declarar el Impuesto a los Grandes Patrimonios (2025 tax unit)
  7. Acceso a la Justicia, Impuesto al patrimonio: ¿nueva arma de persecución selectiva? (26 July 2019)
  8. Finanzas Digital, Seniat depura contribuyentes especiales (21 October 2026)
  9. Finanzas Digital, Recaudación del Seniat en septiembre (2 October 2026)
  10. Crónica Uno, Medidas de Maduro acentúan desequilibrios de la economía (11 September 2017)
  11. Ciudad Valencia, Pasqualina Curcio, Antología de propuestas económicas II: Tributos (November 2020)
  12. Diario Las Américas, Proponen impuesto para bienes de venezolanos en el exterior (9 May 2023)

The 18 supporters in Venezuela