{"text":[[{"start":4.26,"text":"If you are a very wealthy, globally mobile person wondering where to pitch your tent, you are probably keenly focused on two big — and conceptually opposed — fiscal trends."}],[{"start":14.28,"text":"On the one hand, there’s California and its ilk, concerned by the societal impacts of rising inequality and attempting to impose wealth taxes. On the other, there are the likes of Greece, keen to attract the super-rich — including UK fund manager Chris Rokos — with sweet deals, in the hope that wealth will somehow trickle down."}],[{"start":34.02,"text":"And then there’s Italy, which wants to do both, and thus risks achieving neither. The country has successfully marketed itself as a tax haven for wealthy individuals, including those fleeing London following the scrapping of non-dom rules. Now, however, it is looking at the imposition of an “exit tax” on rich emigrants."}],[{"start":52.92,"text":"Under the proposed rules sketched out in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s draft budget law, current residents with more than €800,000 of equity or debt investments worldwide would, should they ever tire of La Dolce Vita, be slapped with a 26 per cent capital gains tax, whether they actually sell their assets or not."}],[{"start":72.18,"text":"This is not totally unprecedented. Alongside the US, a number of European countries — including Germany, France and Spain — levy exit taxes on rich individuals. And it removes the incentive to move to a lower-tax jurisdiction simply to sell amassed gains, which is sensible enough."}],[{"start":89.56,"text":"But Italy is casting the net unusually wide. The €800,000 threshold, which applies to a resident’s gross assets rather than deducting borrowings or mortgages, means the tax would enmesh a lot of senior professionals. Spain’s version, by contrast, applies to those with more than €4mn in assets."}],[{"start":108.28,"text":"Moreover, Meloni’s plan has other unappealing quirks. Some taxpayers will have to sell assets they might otherwise have held longer in order to pay their bill. And where Italian residents move to an EU country and don’t end up selling their stocks and shares, they get their money back after five years. The whole rigmarole is perhaps best understood as a forced loan to the Italian state."}],[{"start":129.2,"text":"The biggest problem is that the exit tax sends mixed messages on how Italy views wealth creation. It’s less than a decade since the country rolled out the red carpet to the world’s wealthy by offering a flat tax rate on foreign earnings. In this case, the new measure would spare those people, experts at Italian tax law firm Maisto & Associati believe. But, philosophically at least, it makes Italy seem closer to California than Greece."}],[{"start":155.36,"text":"And Meloni has a lot to lose on this front. The government’s own estimates of the potential benefit from the new levy are tiny, ranging from less than €4mn next year to a peak of €6.7mn for the following four years, before dropping back again. By contrast, Italy’s regime to attract rich foreigners generates annual tax income in the hundreds of millions."}],[{"start":178.96,"text":"California’s voters were set to decide on its billionaire tax on Tuesday. Whatever they decide, a state where many of the world’s biggest companies reside can afford to take a robust line with its wealthy residents. Italy — for all of its gorgeous scenery and exquisite aperitivi — needs to work a little bit harder."}],[{"start":199.58,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793781540_3313.mp3"}