How to Tax Wealth, Inheritance, and Exit: A Global Perspective on the Moore Case and the U.S. Expatriation Tax

In a time when public trust in governments is declining in several countries, it’s worth asking whether this trust can be restored without addressing growing inequality. Financial assets are increasingly concentrated at the top and across generations, with corporate savings and booming share prices reflecting more capital accruing to a few shareholders (households). Meanwhile, the pay divide between chief executives and workers is widening: some estimates indicate that, in 2022, CEOs in the US earned 344 times as much as a typical worker, compared to just 21 times in 1965.

Current income tax systems prove ineffective in addressing this growing inequality in the context of high capital mobility, where high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) can often easily relocate.

In this seminar, Domenico Imparato (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Global Fellow under the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Program and Research Fellow at the University of Hamburg) will explore current global trends aimed at creating more effective taxation. Topics include: recent international dialogues at the UN level and under Brazil’s rotating G20 presidency on global wealth taxes for ultra-HNWIs, needed improvements to inheritance levies, the American debate on whether the realization requirement is constitutionally mandated to tax income and asset appreciation (the Moore Case), and the floating idea in Europe of introducing exit levies on unrealized gains, partially akin to the U.S. Expatriation Tax.