Gabriel Zucman: Need for a tax on billionaires

Watch recording from the public discussion at the bottom of this page.

Gabriel Zucman is one of the world's most well-known economists. He is a professor at the Paris School of Economics and the University of Berkeley in the USA, head of the EU Tax Observatory and has received several international awards. He has also written several books that have been widely distributed outside the academic world and have influenced the political debate. Gabriel Zucman is perhaps best known for the idea of ​​introducing a special tax on billionaires. The other year, this issue was up for a vote in the French parliament (where the proposal was voted down) and the issue was also relevant in connection with the elections in Denmark the other week.

In connection with the publication of Gabriel Zucman's book on taxes on billionaires in Swedish (Miljardärskatt Så kan den införas, Atlas förlag), he visited Stockholm. There were many media interviews, meetings with politicians and economists, and also an appearance at Stockholm University. The Department of Economics, together with Nationalekonomiska Föreningen (the Swedish Economics Association), invited to a public lecture and discussion in the Aula Magna about welfare and inequality in the rich world. There was great interest. About 500 people attended and the event was also livestreamed (and can be watched below).

Rise of extreme wealth by billionaires

Gabriel Zucman opened by stating that we live in more equal societies than a century ago. Then he added that there is a break in the march to equality. We see a rise of extreme wealth by billionaires in the rich world. A few thousand households own a big proportion of the wealth in the US, or put in Zucman´s words – this is “oligarchic wealth”. This is also the case in Sweden, according to Zucman.

“Extreme wealth is extreme power. There is a fundamental tension between wealth and power. Our current tax systems fail to tax the rich.”

Together with David Seim, Professor of Economics at Stockholm University and Marius Ring at University of Texas Austin, Zucman has made a study of the income distribution and the tax systems in Sweden and Norway. The study shows that very rich individuals in Sweden and Norway largely use personal holding companies to defer taxation, which greatly lowers their effective tax rates. The income often remains in the companies for a long time and is rarely paid out, which means that the progressive income tax system in practice functions more like a consumption tax for the very wealthy. Holding companies have contributed to increased inequality and to the fact that traditional taxes, such as income and wealth taxes, have limited effect unless they are reformed. The study will be published later this Spring.

Zucman is worried that there is a risk for the cohesion of society if the ultra-rich do not “pay their share” to society and it might be a threat to the social contract. Creating a minimum tax for billionaires is the way to handle this, according to Gabriel Zucman:

“As a billionaire you have to pay a minimum in tax, as a fraction of wealth. The new tax should be two percent for those with incomes above 100 million dollars.”

Zucman continued by saying that 2 percent should be a floor, not a ceiling.

“Lifting the bottom is the key!”

The next presentation on stage came from Daniel Waldenström, Professor of Economics and Program Director at The Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Daniel Waldenström emphasized that it is possible both having equality and having superrich people. “Lifting the bottom is the key!”

He showed the immense growth in the Swedish economy, wealth and equality during the last 100 years ago. Swedes are richer now than ever in history. This has lead to a “democratization” of saving since more people have been able to save. First they started to save for their own homes, making homes the largest source of wealth in Sweden today. Then retirement savings also grew enormously making the other main source of wealth in Sweden today.

“Wealth has changed from something that only rich people had to being something for everyone today,” according to Daniel Waldenström.

Both the rich people and ordinary people get richer today, he continued. “When there is growth it means that everyone win and will get lifted.”

Daniel Waldenström said that global inequality is falling – and fast. Many companies are work hard and creating services and products we want. Hence, the taxes should not hinder these companies to grow. Danel Waldenström advocated us to tax the income from capital – and not prioritize taxes on wealth and inheritance.

Taxation based on citizenship

In the following discussion Gabriel Zucman brought up that the tax on superrich he advocates also should be implemented when rich Swedes (and other citizens) leave their home country. This kind of taxation based on citizenship does already exist in the US, so it should be implemented in other countries too. Daniel Waldenström rejected this proposal by saying it will counteract people willing to invest and take risks. But he also stressed that there is a need to strengthen the transparency of the political system.

Elinor Odeberg, Chief Economist at the think tank Arena Idé, also gave her perspectives on economic equality in Sweden. She said that the situation in Sweden has become like the US.
“Sweden has become the land of extremes. The gaps are still rising and general welfare has gone down. Low and middle income owners are paying a larger part of the taxes.”
She fully endorsed Gabriel Zucman´s proposal on taxing billionaires and saw this as a first step.

Andreas Bergh, Professor of Economics at Lund University and Associate Professor at IFN, said that the data provides by Zucman and Waldenström do not contain enough information to judge who of them are right. We have to scrutinize this more closely, he added and concluded: “Even if we tax the superrich they will still be rich. We have to make them behave the way we want them to behave without forcing them.”

Watch recording from the public discussion in Aula Magna 31 March 2026