[continued from previous message]   
      
   revenues and damage to the economy, but three years later, it is clear   
   that the exodus had limited impact.   
      
   In Norway, as elsewhere, the billionaires are getting richer. In 2024,   
   the 400 wealthiest were worth 2.139tn kroner, up 14% in a year,   
   according to the business magazine Kapital. But it also reported half of   
   this wealth was controlled by families relocated abroad.   
      
   Fasting believes more will leave. “People are not investing here, not   
   listing their companies, and finally moving out, which is serious. And I   
   am sure that if the Labour party continues after the elections now you   
   will see a boost of people moving,” she says.   
      
   Her main argument for scrapping the tax is that it puts Norwegians at a   
   disadvantage compared with foreign company owners. She says they have to   
   take dividends out of their companies to pay the tax authorities, which   
   means less money for growing businesses or starting new ones.   
      
   One of the loudest lobby groups is Aksjon for Norsk Eierskap – Action   
   for Norwegian Ownership. Its backers include the salmon exporter Roger   
   Hofseth. “If the left wins this time, a lot of people will flee to   
   Switzerland,” Hofseth told a gathering last month.   
      
   “There is this mentality that people who are self-made, they forget they   
   are a product of the system,” says Alstadsæter at the Centre for Tax   
   Research. “For me it’s about justice. Everyone should pay a little bit.   
   The rich get all these public goods. A stable political system, social   
   security, and a highly educated population with access to free healthcare.”   
      
   She believes some reforms are needed, saying the threshold of 1.7m   
   kroner is too low.   
      
   With a sovereign wealth fund that collects the profits from Norway’s   
   abundant stocks of oil and gas able to contribute 25% of public spending   
   each year, there is arguably no need for the formuesskatt.   
      
   “To me, it’s more about fairness,” says Simen Markussen, the director of   
   the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo. “It ensures that   
   capital owners who don’t have labour income are paying a reasonable   
   amount of tax. It redistributes from the richest to everyone.”   
      
   For the very rich, it is particularly effective, as it accounts for most   
   of the personal taxes they pay.   
      
   While the sums collected are not huge, they are meaningful. “Compared   
   with all taxes on personal income it’s maybe 4.5%,” says Markussen.   
   “It’s big enough that if a politician says ‘I want to abolish it’ they   
   should be challenged on how this should be financed. Do you want to   
   maintain those tax revenues, or what do you want to cut?”   
      
   Munthe-Kaas founded the Oda grocery delivery business, which became   
   Norway’s first “unicorn”, a term used for startups valued at more than   
   $1bn. He exited the company last year and no longer pays the wealth tax,   
   but has done previously. He believes it works well, and would prefer a   
   cut to corporation tax.   
      
   “The wealth tax is not a choice between value creation versus   
   distribution, it gives us both,” he says. “Any tax you bring in will   
   reduce the ability to either invest or consume, whoever pays it. Taxing   
   the rich isn’t different in that sense to taxing a middle-class worker.   
   So when rich people are upset they get less to invest, the same argument   
   goes for anyone.”   
      
   Karl Munthe-Kaas, who founded the Oda delivery grocery delivery   
   business, believes the wealth tax works well. Photograph: Millionaires   
   for Humanity   
   André Nilsen, a neuroscientist and kroner millionaire thanks to family   
   money and his own investments, pays a small sum in wealth tax each year.   
   He believes the formuesskatt should stay because it helps pay for social   
   security. “It is easier to get rich in Norway compared with other   
   countries. You are free to go on wild explorations of ideas because you   
   have a safety net that will catch you if it doesn’t work out,” he says.   
      
   Although the wealthy often give generously to charity, it cannot replace   
   tax, he believes. “There must be some kind of system above everyone that   
   says at least do this.”   
      
   There are other ways to target wealth. The UK – in common with many   
   other countries – taxes dividends, capital gains and inherited money.   
   But the rates can be much lower than those for wage-based income, and   
   there are many loopholes and discounts.   
      
   Alstadsæter says the wealth tax is harder to dodge: “It’s the only tax   
   that cannot be avoided through restructuring while living in Norway,   
   hence the opposition.”   
      
     This article was amended on 10 September 2025 to amend the footnote on   
   the graph showing wealth tax. An earlier version said that it showed the   
   “party listed is the governing party or leading party in governing   
   coalition” whereas it showed the governing party or largest party in the   
   governing coalition.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)