On August 7, Italy doubled its flat tax on foreign income for new residents. The move came as a nasty blow to wealthy expats who were looking to avoid higher taxes elsewhere in Europe.
In 2017, Italy introduced the so-called “football scheme.” Thanks to it, the country has attracted a fair number of super-rich people to live there. New residents and Italian citizens who had lived abroad for nine out of the last 10 years paid a flat tax of 100,000 euros on any foreign income or assets for 15 years. Thanks to this scheme, Italy opened its doors to many wealthy people, entrepreneurs, and financiers (more than 2,700 multimillionaires in total, according to the Financial Times). Now the tax for them will be 200,000 euros.
Switzerland has also begun to consider raising taxes. The country is home to 22 of the 500 richest people in the world. The initiative was put forward by the youth wing of the Social Democrats, Juso, which proposed using inheritance tax to finance measures aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. They propose to levy half of the wealth transferred that exceeds $59 million. Citizens will be able to vote on these changes in about two years.