Lets go through an analysis of this looking at a real word scenario, but ignoring Federal Income Tax since that wouldn't change the situation.
Assume you sell your company and earn $10M.
In CA, you're taxed at 13% right away, and so have $8.7M. Lets say you earn 3% returns each year. Modest but not great. You're taxed another 13% on that 3% by California, meaning you actually earn 2.61% returns. After 60 years, if you leave the money untouched and tax laws don't change, you'll have just under $41M.
If there was a state that had no income tax (say, Texas or Florida) and charged a .5% wealth tax, it would go like this. You'd have $9.95M after paying taxes when selling your business. After a year of investing at 3% returns, you'd have $10.248M, on which you'd be taxed .5%. After taxes, you'd have $10.197M. Do that for 60 years, and you'd end up with more than $43M
While PG says that "Even a .5% wealth tax would start to keep founders away from a state or country that imposed it", it hasn't. California state income tax is higher, and that is where Zuck, PG, Larry Paige, Brian Chesky and a bunch of other people live.
The acquisition price can't be right. If the price was north of $1B, GM would be required to file and disclose the price as the acquisition was material. GM itself is worth less than $50B, so an acquisition for over 2% of the value of the company certainly would be considered material and require disclosure to the SEC and investors. That price can't be right.
Lets go through an analysis of this looking at a real word scenario, but ignoring Federal Income Tax since that wouldn't change the situation.
Assume you sell your company and earn $10M.
In CA, you're taxed at 13% right away, and so have $8.7M. Lets say you earn 3% returns each year. Modest but not great. You're taxed another 13% on that 3% by California, meaning you actually earn 2.61% returns. After 60 years, if you leave the money untouched and tax laws don't change, you'll have just under $41M.
If there was a state that had no income tax (say, Texas or Florida) and charged a .5% wealth tax, it would go like this. You'd have $9.95M after paying taxes when selling your business. After a year of investing at 3% returns, you'd have $10.248M, on which you'd be taxed .5%. After taxes, you'd have $10.197M. Do that for 60 years, and you'd end up with more than $43M
While PG says that "Even a .5% wealth tax would start to keep founders away from a state or country that imposed it", it hasn't. California state income tax is higher, and that is where Zuck, PG, Larry Paige, Brian Chesky and a bunch of other people live.