California’s New “Billionaire Tax” Is a Warning Shot to Every Entrepreneur in America
November 14, 2025, 2:11 AM
By Julio Gonzalez, CEO of Engineered Tax Services
California is at it again.
A powerful state union has launched an extraordinary effort to impose a so-called “billionaire tax” — a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of the state’s most successful innovators. Supporters claim it will raise $100 billion to backfill health-care shortfalls, but the truth is simpler and more troubling:
California is trying to tax its way out of a leadership crisis — and they’re targeting the very people who built its economy.
This isn’t just bad policy. It’s a warning to every job creator, investor, and entrepreneur in America.
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A Wealth Tax by Another Name
Supporters insist the measure is a “one-time” tax. Anyone who pays attention to government knows nothing in politics is ever truly one-time.
Once a mechanism exists to seize private wealth based purely on net worth, it never stops with billionaires.
It creeps downward.
It expands.
It becomes normalized.
Today it’s billionaires.
Tomorrow it’s anyone with a business, real estate, equity, or accumulated savings.
California already has the nation’s highest state income tax, some of the country’s most burdensome regulations, and the fastest-shrinking population in the nation. Now, rather than reforming their spending, the state wants to reach into the balance sheets of private Americans.
This isn’t smart tax policy.
It’s desperation masquerading as fairness.
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You Don’t Build Prosperity by Punishing Success
The people California is targeting aren’t faceless oligarchs. They’re founders, investors, and entrepreneurs — many of whom built companies that employ tens of thousands of workers.
These are the people who fund start-ups, donate to hospitals, support universities, and drive America’s innovation economy.
When you punish success, you don’t create equality — you create an exodus.
We’ve already watched thousands of entrepreneurs and businesses leave California for states with sane tax policy like Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and Nevada. Many of the billionaires this proposal aims to tax have already packed their bags.
Instead of attracting innovators, California is essentially telling them:
“Build your dreams somewhere else — and leave your checkbook behind.”
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The Real Cost: Jobs, Innovation, and America’s Competitive Edge
This tax would destroy more than it collects.
Wealth taxes have failed in every country that attempted them — France, Sweden, Denmark, Germany. All repealed them after watching capital flight accelerate and investment collapse.
America can’t afford a similar mistake.
We’re in a global competition for innovation and capital.
China isn’t taxing its entrepreneurs’ net worth.
India isn’t.
Singapore isn’t.
Only in California do policymakers believe economic growth comes from punishing the wealth creators who drive it.
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There Is a Better Way: Tax Equality, Not Tax Hostility
For two decades, I’ve advocated for tax equality — ensuring small business owners, middle-market companies, and family offices have access to the same tax incentives Fortune 500 companies enjoy.
You don’t grow an economy by taking more.
You grow it by helping more people participate.
That means:
• Rewarding investment.
• Incentivizing innovation.
• Expanding access to federal and state tax credits.
• Supporting entrepreneurs instead of vilifying them.
America’s tax code should be a ladder — not a hammer.
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California’s Proposal Should Be a National Wake-Up Call
This ballot initiative may pass, or it may fail. But the mindset behind it is spreading.
If California gets away with taxing net worth, other states will follow. Eventually Washington will take notice.
This is why we must push back now.
The strength of the American economy has always come from rewarding ingenuity — not confiscating it.
Entrepreneurs take the risks.
They build the jobs.
They drive innovation.
They fund local communities.
They are not the enemy.
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America Doesn’t Need a Wealth Tax — We Need a Wealth Creation Plan
If California truly wants to solve its budget issues, it should focus on the basics:
• Reduce waste.
• Reform spending.
• Incentivize growth.
• Attract companies and talent rather than chasing them away.
You don’t rebuild a failing system by draining the people who keep it afloat.
This billionaire tax is the wrong solution to the wrong problem — and it threatens the future of American innovation.
It’s time to stop demonizing wealth and start celebrating the people who create it.
That’s how you build a stronger, more prosperous, more competitive America.
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