Norway's Wealth Tax Is Driving Out Its Top Entrepreneurs
Norway Shrugged
A Norwegian founder explains why he left the country: an unrealized gains wealth tax that can exceed net income, an exit tax on departure, and politicians who ignore the consequences. He draws parallels to Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged,' noting that 100 of Norway's top 400 taxpayers have fled, and argues the oil wealth that once funded prudent policies now fuels ideological overreach. With the 2025 election approaching, he sees no fundamental solution from mainstream parties.
Trust is built in millimeters and torn down in meters.
- hingler36
I guess I'm in the weird position of being a leftist who is generally against wealth taxes. Taxing non-liquid wealth like this requires the government to be able to accurately assess the value of these assets and that's an unrealistic burden IMO. I would rather address the "Buy, Borrow, Die" paradigm from other angles, like restricting the classes of assets one can borrow money against to force liquidation and therefore be subject to a traditional capital gains tax instead. That way the market takes care of the problem of pricing the asset and society can impose a tax on that valuation.
- gardnr
This article is from 2024. They can defer this tax now. [1]
> High income with short work days, free healthcare, free daycare, free education and beyond.
If the author doesn't value these for the people around them then perhaps he should move somewhere else.
1: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/person/taxes/tax-deduction-ca...
- loldot_
What all these people fail to mention is that at about the same time as the increase in wealth tax, another tax rule was made stricter. Before nov. 29 2022, you could take your unrealized profits abroad for five years to reset your cost basis for the realized gains tax. Meaning you could essentially spend five years to get rid of your tax burden. This tax amount is significantly larger than the wealth tax. And many of these 100 people moved before that.
- jt2190
Is the Norwegian government’s theory that a modern company might never realize their gains, and avoid taxation indefinitely, and thus this is a forcing mechanism to extract some tax revenue?
- Kon5ole
Magazines all over the world talk about the wealth of business owners as if it is equivalent to the wealth of say sports stars or musicians, who get paid millions to their bank accounts.
Forbes and other finance magazines create top lists and bio stories presented entirely as if the valuations of businesses are the same as actual money. When Amazon shares go up or down a few percent overnight it's reported in the media as if a convoy of trucks has dumped dollar bills at Bezos' mansion. "Bezos made xx millions per minute".
Spreading such misinformation everywhere for decades can't be good, and it seems Norway has fallen victim to it.