Wealth Taxes Are Going Global, From California to Germany

The fortunes of the world’s richest people soared in 2020 even as the pandemic caused economic devastation, a stark trend that is reviving calls to tax all that new wealth.

From Chile to the U.K., left-leaning parties, lawmakers, activists and academics are floating new proposals for levies on millionaires and billionaires, with the goal of directly taxing their assets rather than hiking rates on sources such as income.

Argentina approveda one-time wealth tax last month, and Bolivia’s legislature, fulfilling a campaign promise by its new socialist president, passed an annual levy on large fortunes at the end of the year. Lawmakers elsewhere ...