LinkedInJune 18, 2026
Canada is known for a 53 percent exit tax. In Ontario the effective top charge is half that, 26.76. The headline is almost never the bill.
In several developed economies, leaving tax residence can trigger a tax on gains you have not even cashed in. Across six major regimes, the rate everyone repeats is rarely the one that drives the bill.
Four of the six overstate. An inclusion rate, a holding discount, a partial taxation rule or an exclusion quietly cuts the taxable base, sometimes in half. One understates. France looks light at 12.8 percent, but that is only the income tax part, and 18.6 percent social levies take the standard charge to 31.4 percent. And one, Norway, is the control case where the quoted 37.84 percent is broadly the real rate on taxable gains above the NOK 3 million floor. The United Kingdom sits outside the six entirely, with no general exit tax on latent gains.
The pattern is simple. The percentage on the table tells you almost nothing. What decides the bill is the base it sits on, and the thresholds, deferrals and treaties around it.
I broke all six down, headline against the effective top rate in the standard case, in the carousel.
Which one surprised you most, the four that are softer than they look, or the one that is harsher?
GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind @null.
#internationaltax #globalmobility #exittax
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Norway
United Kingdom
United States
Georgia
Singapore