Details
Some governments require declaration of the tax payer's balance sheet (assets and liabilities), and from that ask for a tax on net worth (assets minus liabilities), as a percentage of the net worth, or a percentage of the net worth exceeding a certain level. The tax is in place for both "natural" and in some cases legal "persons".
In France, the net worth tax on "natural persons" is called the "solidarity tax on wealth". In other places, the tax may be called, or be known as, a "Capital Tax", an "Equity Tax", a "Net Worth Tax", a "Net Wealth Tax", or just a "Wealth Tax".
Some European countries have abandoned this kind of tax in the recent years: Austria, Denmark (1995), Germany (1997), Sweden (2007), and Spain (2008). On January 2006, wealth tax was abolished in Finland, Iceland (but temporarily re-introduced in 2010) and Luxembourg. In other countries, like Belgium or Great Britain, no tax of this type has ever existed, although the Window Tax of 1696 was based on a similar concept.
The United States Constitution prohibits any "direct tax" on personal holdings (as opposed to transactions such as income or capital gains) unless the revenue collected is apportioned among the states on the basis of their population.
Read more about this topic: Wealth Tax
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