Why isn’t Switzerland progressively closing its wealth gap? The question is important in the context of the intense ongoing debate from Washington to London about a wealth tax. The coronavirus pandemic has caused government debt to soar and led to calls for substantial new levies on the rich. The argument goes that the wealthy should pay their fair share and growing inequality must be addressed. Switzerland is supposed to offer a template. Not only does it have the highest density of millionaires in the world, it has a recurring annual wealth tax, which goes back 181 years. It consistently generates more income than the other three European countries that also have a wealth tax or some version of it. In 2017, the Swiss wealth tax contributed 3.6 per cent to the total tax takings. That’s respectable, compared to the 1.1 per cent generated by Norway’s wealth tax, the 0.55 per cent raised by Spain’s and the even lower sum brought in by Belgium’s limited wealth tax on security holdings.