Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from Norway, 2021–2025
A research paper analyzes the impact of Norwegian tax reforms between 2021 and 2025 on business owners and wealth distribution. The study finds that while tax increases led to some migration among the ultra-wealthy, it did not significantly harm business investment or firm activity.
Why it matters
This provides empirical evidence for the ongoing global debate regarding the economic consequences of taxing the ultra-wealthy and the risk of capital flight.
LinkedIn Facebook Bluesky Threads Email Link Working Paper 35854 DOI 10.3386/w35854 Issue Date October 2026 Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021–2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an “exodus” of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times, 2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms.
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