LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, who could take €1bn hit, says proposed 2% levy ‘aims to destroy liberal economy’

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36272492

Europe’s richest man, the luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, has said that a wealth tax that could cost him more than €1bn (£817m) would be deadly for France’s economy.

The French founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton said in a statement to the Sunday Times that calls for a 2% wealth tax on all assets “aims to destroy the liberal economy, the only one that works for the good of all”.

The idea of a wealth tax has steadily gained ground in France because of a political crisis, with the government trying to push through unpopular budget cuts. The idea of a 2% wealth tax on fortunes worth more than €100m has been proposed by Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor who has become a household name in France.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    41·
    14 hours ago

    The idea of a 2% wealth tax on fortunes worth more than €100m has been proposed by Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor who has become a household name in France.

    I fully 100% agree.

    The reason why the tax exempt amount is $100m is sothat 99% of the population have less than that amount in total wealth, so they pay no taxes at all; that’s why it should be widely popular. At least parties like the AfD can’t argue that it “hurts the small man”, because that’s simply not true.

    I think that a wealth tax can only work if it’s combined with import taxes, because otherwise companies just leave the country and go somewhere else to produce their products. To prevent them from doing so, they have to suffer a disadvantage if they do that, so they have to lose access to the market, for example, by implementing import taxes.