Topic
Direct levies on accumulated net worth rather than income, including one-time assessments on billionaire fortunes.
Washington's 9.9% tax on household income above $1 million, set to start in 2028 for about 30,000 taxpayers, faces a Nov. 3 repeal vote and a pending lawsuit. Advisers weighing domicile have a rate and a start date but no ruling on whether it survives.
Reality
Opponents of California's one-time 5% billionaire tax have raised more than $300 million, about ten times what its backers have. For the few hundred people in scope, residency was fixed on Jan. 1, 2026, so payment and a rival nullifying measure are what remain open.
Reality
Property magnate David Reuben has moved to Monaco about 18 months after the UK put long-term residents' global assets under its 40% inheritance tax. In California, where Prop 40's residency date has passed, opponents of the 5% levy are outspending supporters almost six to one.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
About 100 tech billionaires added a record $845bn in the first nine months of 2026, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The gains sit in a few US fortunes tied to AI share prices, so they describe this year's stock market better than next year's AI spending.
Perspective Coverage
5 publishersReality
California voters will decide in November on Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state's 250 billionaires, who hold $2.3 trillion. Whether any of them pays turns on a three-way vote count, since two rival amendments on the same ballot can undo it.
Reality
Sergey Brin has given $102 million to defeat California's Prop 40, a one-time 5% billionaire tax that could cost him about $13 billion. The state's $100 billion estimate depends as much on how many of its 200 billionaires stay resident as on the November vote.
Reality
PPIC's September survey puts Prop 40 at 52%, Prop 41 at 51% and Prop 42 at 54%, and Prop 40 takes effect only if it outpolls both in yes votes. Every gap between the three sits inside a 3.8-point margin of error.
Reality
The ISGlobal-led study puts avertable deaths at 6.6 to 29.5 million by 2030, and that four-and-a-half-fold spread turns on which tax is levied and at what rate rather than on any statistical bound.
Reality
Proposition 40 would take 5% once from anyone worth over $1 billion. August polling puts it at 48% among likely voters and 75% among 18-to-29s. The composition of the November electorate is the only number that decides it.
Reality