Berkeley Prof.: U.S. Can Learn from Europe by Making a Wealth Tax Harder to Avoid

EXCERPT:

ZUCMAN: “Yes. You know, look, taxes are neither bound to fail or to succeed. You know, tax avoidance. Tax evasion. Tax competition. These are not laws of nature. These are choices that we make. Sometimes government choose to let tax avoidance fester and they choose tax competition. That’s what the European countries did. But the U.S. can make other choices and the U.S. can learn from the European experience. And the Warren wealth tax, for instance, learns from that experience. It starts much higher in the wealth distribution. $50 million. In Europe, it was $1 million. It has no exemptions. No deductions whatsoever. It comes with much more funding for the IRS to make sure that tax evasion is limited. And, you know, the difference between the U.S. and Europe is in Europe, if I’m French and I move to London, I don’t have to pay taxes anymore in France. In the U.S., if you are an American citizen, even if you move abroad, you still have to pay taxes in the U.S."