Rich Fleeing High Taxes

This assumes that there is only a single country on Earth or that the rich would not be willing to move to a country with lower taxation. Hint: they are already doing that.

It's been argued a lot that such a move would cause a good portion of American billionaires to just pack up and move to another country. Rich people are mobile in a way that poor people are not.

There is a big factor that you are missing when it come to huge taxes. And that is the fact that people, especially the wealthy, are mobile.Tax the wealthiest 0.01% at 99% and watch how fast they leave the country for low tax regions.It already happens with people like the Facebook cofounder that renounced US citizenship.

What happens when the wealthy people decide that they don't like what you have planned for them and decide to set up somewhere else? Exit visas?Wealthy people get to choose which jurisdiction they submit themselves to. That's just how the world is.

Do you think anyone will expatriate rather than pay a wealth tax?

There might be an ethical argument, but the "rich people have lots of options, and might leave" argument isn't really convincing to me. Recall that to avoid U.S. income tax, you must move abroad and permanently renounce your citizenship. How many wealthy Americans do you think would really do that solely due to a tax hike? Especially one that was in the range that would actually likely be passed (i.e. not 99%)?

They'd be able to move their capital outside the country while still residing inside it, and enjoying the other U.S. benefits.Assuming those with the ability to move their wealth overseas would do so, the people most affected by substantially raising taxes would be those without enough wealth to move it... those outside the top 1%, 0.1%.. whatever super-rich people the policy aims to target.Although it isn't ideal that the wealthy can 'shop around' for the most tax-frie

Precisely. The most wealthy people are also the most mobile and most able to jurisdiction shop. Wealthy Swedes may have a certain affection to Sweeden, but would probably move (to Singapore, for example) rather than pay 95% income tax.

>At least 10,000 wealthy people left the country to avoid paying the tax; most moved to neighboring BelgiumUnlike many countries, US citizens can't escape US income tax by moving out of the country, income tax must be paid regardless of the geographic source of income.

You can't tax the rich. They'll simply move to another country.