ABSTRACT
Between 2011 and 2014, the governments of most European nations imposed a variety of
increases in tax rates. Italy’s government, for instance, imposed a special tax rate on the
assessed market value of luxury automobiles. The French and Spanish governments
enacted the most substantial increases in tax rates, however. In France, the government
raised the top income tax rate by a factor of more than one-half, to 75 percent. The
Spanish government instituted a “wealth tax,” under which the government applied a
tax rate to the outstanding assets-funds in accounts at financial institutions, physical
property, and even intellectual property-of its wealthiest residents.
