Sergey Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google, has fled California over the prospect of voters approving a wealth tax in the November election.
The move comes days after Larry Page, his co-founder, left the state.
Page had been a resident of Palo Alto. Brin had previously said his residence was in Los Altos Hills.
The New York Times said Brin moved more than a dozen entities out of the state in the final days of last year. The tax would apply to billionaires living in the state on Jan. 1.
Brin, 52, is the world’s fourth richest person thanks to his 6% stake in Alphabet, Google’s parent company. He is worth an estimated $259 billion.
Momentum is building in California for a one-time 5% wealth tax on anyone with a net worth of more than $1 billion. This would cost Brin around $13 billion.
The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers union is gathering signatures to put the tax on the ballot in November.
The Times says Brin is house hunting in Miami, which has been a favorite destination for tech billionaires fleeing California. Page has bought two Miami mansions. He spent a combined $173.4 million on the properties in the exclusive beachfront Coconut Grove neighborhood.
By the time this gets on the ballot, there won’t be any billionaires left in California to tax. I read that both of these two had already reincorporated the various corporations and LLCs that manage their personal wealth in Delaware and Nevada. And if you think they will have to move out of the state think again. There is probably a way to claim a house in Miami as your primary residence, and continue living most of the year in California. This is why Page and Brin are billionaires and the union bosses running SEIU are not.
That’s actually very hard. California is extremely litigious, probably the most in the nation, in going after money from people who move out of state to avoid taxes. You really have to cut the cord all the way — no assets left here, rarely visit etc — or else risk a long and potentially losing legal battle.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. (Take note Greer Stone and Julie Lythcott-Haims)
I’m in favor of the tax so long as they only tax George Soros and Tom Steyer.
Next tax victims are the millionaires, and then the middle class. CA has a spending problem, and the funders of that money are leaving the state.
Once GOOGLE dropped its tag line “Do No Evil”…all bets were off.
These guys realized that once you have a pile of cash tall enough, you can do anything you want without repercussions.
The level of stupidity and financial incompetence being displayed by these socialist circus animals is just scary. They are literally okay with giving all this money to the government because for some reason they think the government is better at spending our money than we are. To force individuals to be taxed on unrealized gains and liquidate equity is taking by the state and should be declared illegal.
The writing on the wall is clear as day. This “tax” is the open door the government will use to eventually go after the middle class. It’s inevitable. Whatever money is raised from this “tax” will disappear as fast as it was collected.
Good for Brin and Page to give California the middle-finger. I can only wish to be in their financial position but I would do the exact same thing. Screw the people that support this tax.
Newsom is correct , this billionaire tax will hurt California . Look deeper , read the fine print … the way the wealth tax law is written Brin and Page would have 50% of their Alphabet shares confiscated. They lose their voting rights in the company. To think what is 5% to a billionaire ? It ends up a lot more than that. We have already lost $1 trillion from the exodus and this hurts all of us.
California already has a very progressive tax system on the wealthy . Stop with the insanity.
Gavin wants to he able to say he’s a tax cutter when he runs for president. This is a high-profile tax he can oppose and not upset too many of his supporters. If he were seriously a tax-cutter he could start by lowering or eliminating the state income tax (the top bracket is taxed at 13%) which is higher than 48 other states.
This money will go to needy nonprofits, who will use it to help children and struggling immigrants. Anyone who thinks the money will be stolen should take a close look at how government grants helped the Somali community in Minneapolis.
Excellent point. California is already in massive debt with wasteful funding and welfare fraud. Look st how they handled the money from the Palisades fire .
How is that high speed train coming along Gavin ? First, they come after the billionaires then they come after the millionaires then they come after the middle class. California is no longer gonna be the hot shot tech capital . Prosperity is leaving and all of us are going to suffer. Will we survive? Sure but it won’t be the same These liberal nut cases need to be careful what they wish for. Vote these idiots out of office .
You’re being sarcastic right?
Gavin is pretending to be against this proposition, but that’s just something he’s saying because he’s running for president. If he really wanted to stop the proposition, he could go to court to stop it (he’s done that before), or he could eliminate the $25/hour minimum wage for healthcare workers. That would bring SEIU-UHW to its knees. But he won’t do that. He’s just pretending he’s changed his ways.
It is hard not to see parallels between this purge of billionaires and the displacement of the kulaks (skilled peasant farmers) from productive farms, which led to widespread famine and the deaths of 4-7 million people in Ukraine. Not hard to imagine the same disgraced economic and political philosophy is behind this purge.