Center for Land Economics | June 2026
Land, the Wealth We Can Actually Tax
California is considering a Billionaire Wealth Tax to close a large revenue gap: a 5 percent one-time levy on roughly 200 billionaires, structured to raise $100 billion over five years. We take no position on how much California should tax. This report asks a narrower question: to raise that revenue, which tax base holds up better — wealth that can leave the state, or land that cannot?
This report introduces an original parcel-level estimate of California’s total land value: $8.14 trillion, triangulated across three independent methods. A fractional-percent land value tax would raise the same revenue the wealth tax promises, while remaining impossible to evade by leaving the state.
Unlike a wealth tax, a land value tax can be administered through California’s existing property tax system, captures the public-investment windfalls that fund the state’s growth, and falls on a base that is roughly eight times larger than the billionaire wealth tax base and cannot move out of state.
Download Full Report (PDF)
Key Findings
- •California’s land is worth about $8.14 trillion, roughly eight times the billionaire wealth that can still be taxed.
- •A 0.25 percent land value tax would raise the same $20 billion a year the wealth tax promises.
- •The wealth tax’s $2 trillion base shrinks by nearly half before collection even begins, as billionaires leave the state.
- •To hit its target on that smaller base, the wealth tax rate would have to nearly double, inviting still more capital flight.
- •Land cannot move and cannot leave the state, and it can be taxed through California’s existing property tax system.