Calls to increase the taxation of the wealthy have resurfaced in New Zealand after a report by the country’s tax department found that the wealthiest Kiwis paid less effective tax than most others. Inland Revenue (IRD) conducted a two-year investigation into how much tax the wealthy people in New Zealand pay based on the full…

While two in five Canadians overall subscribe to the idea of socialism—with that number even higher for younger Canadians—few are willing to pay for the tax increases required to finance such a system, says a study by the Fraser Institute. Among 1,006 Canadians aged 18–34 surveyed, 46 percent of respondents picked socialism when asked “What…

Commentary At New York’s Met Gala last year, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez infamously wore a white gown with “Tax the Rich” emblazoned in red across it. The irony that she wore it at an event not open to the common people she purports to represent, and that she started selling “tax the rich” sweatshirts on her website…

Commentary It’s getting more dangerous to make money and create jobs in California. Under Assembly Bill 259, by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose) the state would “impose an annual tax at a rate of 1.5 percent of a resident of this state’s worldwide net worth” in excess of $1 billion starting in 2024. Starting in…

Commentary It’s an old aphorism that if you tax something, you get less of it. Seven states are at risk of finding out exactly how that truism applies to wealth tax legislation introduced in each should their proposed taxes become law. On Thursday, Jan. 19, seven states—California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Washington—rolled…

Policies to increase taxes on the rich are often proposed, but penalizing those who create wealth doesn’t pay in the long term and could threaten Canadian prosperity, according to a recent study by an independent public policy think tank. Titled “Choking Hazard: The Adverse Effects of ‘Eat the Rich’ Policies” and conducted by the Montreal…

Commentary Liberals are very good at chasing rich people out of their states. Blue states lose billions of tax dollars and many tens of thousands of jobs as a result of the migration of rich people leaving high-tax and high-crime states. It seems to happen nearly every day. Consider Elon Musk. He left California for…

Commentary I am writing this on April Fool’s Day. That may be the perfect day to try to explain how impossible, and indeed foolish, the newest Joe Biden tax proposal is. President Biden is proposing a tax on wealth appreciation for people above a certain level of wealth. In that group, if you have a…

Commentary To help fund his over-the-top spending proposal of $5.8 trillion in post-COVID Fiscal Year 2023, President Joe Biden has called for a brand-new tax on wealth in addition to the current tax on income. He would tax assets that have appreciated since they were purchased. This sounds like a capital gains tax, but it…

Commentary The annual “trick-or-treat” ritual is over. Not so the “tricks” perpetuated by congressional Democrats about their tax-and-spend ritual, and their phony numbers. Consider the latest spending measure cobbled together by the House Democratic leadership, or more accurately their staffs. It is 2,400 pages long, much longer than the longest book I ever read. I…