Episode
427 The California Government Wants Your Assets | Different
- Published
- Apr 8, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2300
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://lochhead.com/fyd-california-asset-tax-2026/
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Summary
On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different , let us talk about California. California is considering something that has never existed in American history: a tax not on what you earn, but on what you own. The proposed Billionaire Tax Act would impose a 5% levy on the total net worth of any California resident worth over $1 billion. But calling it a billionaire tax is misleading, because the consequences reach far beyond the ultra-wealthy. This proposal carries buried constitutional changes, economic risks, and a framework that could eventually touch small business owners, family farmers, solo consultants, and startup founders across the state and potentially the nation. So today, let us dive deeper into the topic. You’re listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different . We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let’s go. What This Tax Actually Is Sacramento is framing this as a simple, one-time fix targeting the ultra-rich. The reality is far more complicated. This is an asset seizure tax, a government mechanism to reach into what people have already built and extract a percentage of it annually. Most billionaires do not hold 5% of their net worth in cash. That means the state would effectively be forcing asset liquidations just to satisfy the tax bill. That is not a technicality. That is a fundamental shift in how government relates to private wealth. Who Really Gets Hit The Hoover Institution ran over 71 economic simulations and found that California ends up poorer under this proposal. Six publicly confirmed billionaires, including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Peter Thiel, have already announced departures. An attorney representing just four clients collectively wo…