Wealth tax

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A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets or an entity's net worth. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownership of unincorporated businesses, financial securities, and personal trusts (a one-off levy on wealth is a capital levy).^[1] Typically, wealth taxation often involves the exclusion of an individual's liabilities, such as mortgages and other debts, from their total assets. Accordingly, this type of taxation is frequently denoted as a net wealth tax.

As of 2017^[update], five of the 36 OECD countries had a personal wealth tax (down from 12 in 1990).^[2]

Proponents often argue that wealth taxes can reduce income inequality by making it harder for individuals to accumulate large amounts of wealth.^[1] Many critics of wealth taxes claim that wealth taxes can cause wealthy people and businesses to move their wealth to lower tax jurisdiction (such as tax havens).^[3]