I was living in Brussels when François Hollande, the President of France, introduced his 75 percent top rate tax in 2012. Immediately, my quartier began to fill with French exiles, who could commute to Paris in just over an hour. One of the few Belgians left in my street, a stern local matriarch, stopped me as I left the house one morning. “You’re in politics, Monsieur le Député, maybe you can tell me something. What kind of hell must these poor souls be fleeing if they see Belgium as a tax haven?”
Three years on, President Hollande is shame-facedly scrapping the 75 percent rate, having forcibly re-learned an ancient truth: Wealth taxes don’t redistribute wealth; they redistribute people. Thousands of well-off Frenchmen made the easy journey north, including the country’s richest man, Bernard Arnault.
