Proposed Billionaire Tax Exposes Dual-Share Racket: Justin Fox (Correct)

An underappreciated aspect of the one-time 5% billionaire wealth tax likely to go before California voters in November is that for several of the state’s most prominent billionaires, the rate might be far higher than 5%. This is because the text of the proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act says that in calculating the tax, “the percentage of the business entity owned by the taxpayer shall be presumed to be not less than the taxpayer’s percentage of the overall voting or other direct control rights.”

For Google co-founder Sergey Brin, among the most outspoken opponents of the tax, this could mean his taxable ...