You can tax the shit out of people if you provide something in return. Millionaires don't flee the Netherlands or Sweden.
Millionaire employees:
You do have HFT companies where people make between 100,000 euro's to 250,000 euro's but pay 50% in employee tax on average. Also, top positions here are taxed around the same rate.
International millionaire employees:
The thing is: not all top managers who are also millionaires are domestic. There are quite some Dutchies who are top managers but have been an expat, which means they were paying the employee tax of another country, which is most likely cheaper. These Dutchies sometimes return to The Netherlands after decades of working abroad. I highly doubt though that tax evasion was their biggest motivator, but paying 20% less (number out of thin air, but NL is 50% so the world is 30%) employee tax year over year definitely adds up as these type of people also invest their money.
Entrepreneurs and freelancers:
A business in The Netherlands that makes 250,000 euro's in profit per year, probably has some tax tricks but my guestimate is that they still pay between 15 to 30% taxes. It really depends on how focused they are on it and how structured they are. I met this one Dutch person who's a freelancer, he makes about a 120,000 euro's per year. I'm pretty sure he pays normal income tax (and gets some deductions because he's a freelancer). Other freelancers that I know are much more focused on it and tend to be on the 15%, maybe even 10% side.
Criminals:
Criminals need to launder money, they pay their taxes, in a more karmic than bureaucratic way. This is also because most criminals that are millionaires don't seem super duper smart (source: the Dutch news regarding assinations of 15 years ago), but they are quite clever since non-clever criminals get caught, not shot.
Inherited wealth:
See my first statement, these people are most likely in real estate. There's even an episode about it by Zondag met Lubach [1]. These people evade tax.
That's all I know about it. My point is: it's a bit more nuanced than every millionaire not paying tax.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fywTiEJgM -- Dutch spoken but has English subtitles (non-auto translated)
The point is rather about large global business entities with sophisticated ownership, leadership, and shareholder structure - somehow they oftentimes are registered as Dutch BV, or in Luxembourg/Ireland. This way or another it’s always some kind of Dutch-Irish sandwich with Luxembourgian sauce.
And I'm not talking $100 million. I'm talking $200k or so. Total assets ignoring debt maybe $2M. Nothing spectacular.
Especially if you do this in the "wrong neighborhood". But of course, if there's some reason you have money, you might have picked your residence based on where your company has to be, to be close to your workshop and able to easily drive to various customers, and not on being in the neighborhood with the "correct" social status. (I live in an immigrant neighborhood because of it's location. Richer neighborhoods are generally in the center of cities and not very drive-able but my work requires a car. Also I vastly prefer a big house over rich neighbours)
I am just a "normal" freelance software developer myself, but partly due to crazy taxation I did emigrate from The Netherlands (though other factors where part of this decision as well).
I think I must have paid close to, or maybe even over 50% tax in The Netherlands, all things considered (including city tax, VAT on products, utilities, etc...) and I also felt I got very little in return (I am sure some people feel tax in The Netherlands is fair, but to each his own).
Then again, his wealth is only because his family bought up a bunch of land and housing in central and southern Turkey. So while they sat on it, living in Germany, other Turks worked hard to develop the cities and business, increasing property value tenfold. A good investment, but one can see why people want the rich taxed more.
It is a two way street.
I don’t get America’s obsession with Scandanavia. Have any of you actually lived there? It’s hilariously overrated.
My friend moved to Prague. He said it is difficult to raise children in Norway if you are a christian. He could not afford to buy a car. There is long waiting list for a house. And Norway is taxing expats even after they leave country (for three years).
What?
(Mind you I didn't know it had escalated to a diplomatic incident between Norway and Poland)
The US has a lot of warts, so that may not be true at the end of the day - but it is a pretty reasonable argument. The population of Scandanavia is less than 10% of the population of the US and is part of a larger European region. Comparing the Scandinavian system to the US system is like running US Federal policy by assuming all 300 million Americans live and work in the nice half of California rather than the geographically and economically diverse reality.
A high tech industry hub can only employ so many people. Hence that non-linearity of effects. And the politics of scaling up population aren't at all smooth (small is better for politics).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP...
I have also discussed these topics with plenty of American millionaires. Most of those are also disgusted at the US healthcare system and skyrocketing college tuition. YMMV. (How do your coworkers feel about the cost of putting their kids through college or covering aging parents’ medical bills?)
Why is it the parents’ responsibility to put their kids through college? If your parents paid for your college, you do not have the right to refer to yourself as self made, millionaire or otherwise.
My parents lived in Canada, the one that is no longer here died from cancer after waiting 5 months for an operating room to open up. They were only stage 2 when they received the diagnosis. I would have broken the bank to get them care in the states if I was working then.
Funny how things are so free to the point that they become worthless when you actually need them.