During 2022, some thirty Norwegian billionaires left their homeland to settle in Switzerland, where taxation is more favourable: the exodus in 2022 was larger than in the previous 13 years combined. According to Norwegian tycoons and tax advisors, the tax changes harm the country’s competitiveness: at the centre of the debate is Norway‘s net wealth tax, which is levied at a rate of 1.1 per cent for the wealthiest. Among the tycoons moving to Switzerland, we can find Kjell Inge Røkke, who made a fortune from fishing: as a young man, he moved to the United States to become a manager. Once back in Oslo, he became the largest shareholder in ‘Aker Asa‘, a holding company specialising in the fishing industry. Last November, Røkke moved to Lugano, Switzerland, for tax, not business, reasons. In Røkke’s case, the tax would have cost him between 56000 and 94000 euros a day. Røkke published a long letter on Aker’s website in which he justified his choice. The last person to leave Norway for Switzerland (municipality of Zug) was Fredrik Haga, the 31-year-old co-founder of Dune Analytics, a billion-dollar cryptocurrency data company. Switzerland has a wealth tax, but reserves various offers for foreigners.
