Behavioral Responses to Special Tax Regimes for the Super-Rich: Insights from Swiss Rich Lists

Enea Baselgia () and Isabel Z. Martínez ()
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Enea Baselgia: University of St.Gallen and SIAW Institute
Isabel Z. Martínez: ETH Zurich and KOF Swiss Economic Institute

No 12, Working Papers from EU Tax Observatory

Abstract: We collect, digitize, and supplement Swiss rich lists published in the “BILANZ†business magazine since 1989, to gain new insights on the structure and dynamics of top wealth in Switzerland. We show that 60% of the super-rich are heirs—a fraction twice as large as in the US, where many super-rich are self-made—and that half of the super-rich residing in Switzerland are foreign-born. Based on this new dataset, we estimate the sensitivity of the location choice of super-rich foreigners to a preferential tax scheme, under which wealthy foreigners are taxed on their expenses, rather than their true income and wealth. We are the first to evaluate this infamous policy (which bears similarities with “non-dom†taxation in the UK or Italy), and show that when some Swiss cantons abolished this practice, their stock of super-rich foreigners dropped by 30% as a consequence. We find no response for the unaffected Swiss super-rich.

Keywords: super-rich; tax mobility; preferential taxation; tax competition; wealth inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 D31 H24 H71 H73 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2023-02
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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