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olavgg 3 days ago

As a Norwegian, I can say that living here is awesome. Unless, you're a business owner, a founder, or have no work experience. The effects of the wealth tax has been insane. Businesses no longer have money to invest and every business that is not state-owned, is in survival mode.

The majority of the "rich" have already moved to another country. Business owners have to sell their business to a foreigner to be able to pay the wealth tax. These business owners use this money to move to another country and retire. Businesses has stopped hiring people without work experience. Even if you have a computer science / engineering degree. The brain drain has already started. The rich no longer invest in local initiatives like local sports, local businesses or volunteering as they are "disconnected". A lot less tax is being paid and to cover for this we need to withdraw more from the oil fund. It may take a few decades to empty the fund. But I think that money will be wasted within a decade if "hate" against rich continues. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1857694219244048691

I am seriously worried about the future, and I am considering moving to Sweden. I love building businesses, but I feel that the state is stealing resources I need to build a business that can pay tax for the next generations.

The high sick leave thing is another serious matter. But when politicians deflect responsibility when they've made a mistake, especially when public scrutiny or pressure increases, they send a message to the rest of the Norwegian population that it is fine to take a few months off if work is too hard. This has not happened once, this has happened a few dozen times just the last few years. And founders, they do not have the right for a single day of paid sick leave unless they employ themself and pay extra tax.

jononor 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

The wealth tax in itself probably does not explain the issues you see. They are more likely related to the global increases in interests.

Now the recently introduced exit tax has some serious problems, in that is has triggered and exodus both of genuinely rich people, and of prospective founders who can easily get rich on paper and have massively disproportionate tax effects. That law is very stupid - especially that unrealized gains are taxable 100% at shares market rate.

olavgg 2 days ago | parent [-]

I disagree, the wealth tax is the issue. The reason the wealth tax is an issue, is that making investments becomes a burden. Norwegian owners have to pay 2.1% of the company value every year as a tax, and when you invest, it can take 5-10 years before you see profits. The calculation is like this: your company is worth 100 million. Your result this year was 0. No gains nor any loss. You still have to pay the wealth tax, and you need to take that money from somewhere. The wealth tax is 1.1% on personal assets. Which means you need to pay 1.1 million. You have to sell a share of your company assets to someone else. You will not get market rate, as you are the initiator for the transaction. We assume you sell assets worth 3 million for just 2.1 million. Now your company has a positive result of 2.1 million. Next is the company tax, 22% which means you have 1.638 million left to pay dividend. The dividend tax is 37.84% which means you as a person now get 1 million to pay the wealth tax.

The exit tax closed a loophole, I do agree that the exit tax needs some adjustments though.

3 days ago | parent | prev [-]
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