Norway raises taxes by 0.1%, 30 billionaires leave the country
Faced with the tax increase decided by the Norwegian government, about 30 billionaires decided to pack their bags for more lenient tax latitudes (illustration photo). Getty Images - Gary John Norman
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Thirty Norwegian billionaires left the country in a few months for countries with more lenient taxation, Switzerland in the first place. A surprising and unprecedented move that could weigh on the Norwegian state budget.
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The wealth tax has risen from 1% to 1.1% in Norway. This tiny change was enough for Norway's most prominent billionaires to cast off, reports our regional correspondence in Stockholm, Carlotta Morteo.
Kjell Inge Rokke, head of one of the country's largest industrial conglomerates, the Kvaerner Group, with a personal fortune estimated at more than 4 billion euros, chose Lugano in Switzerland. His departure deprives the Norwegian State of 175 million crowns per year, or 15 million euros in lost taxes. The 4th national fortune was also the most taxed person in the country last year, according to accounts by the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.
Since he announced his move in November in an open letter, other very wealthy personalities have followed him, more discreetly: the "king of salmon" Anders Masoval, real estate tycoons and other multi-millionaire bosses who have for some explained that they save investments and jobs within their companies.
The battle of numbers is raging in the press, the left-wing minority government is appealing to reason, invoking the Norwegian model of solidarity, and wants to believe that the flight of the financial elites will not last. But it still envisages dissuasive measures, an exit tax for example.
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- Norway
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