According to Forbes’ latest “Global Billionaire Cities Ranking,” Beijing, China, edged out New York City for the second time in a decade, topping the list by a margin of 100:99; Beijing also surpassed New York for the first time in 2016.
The number of billionaires worldwide rose 32% in 2020, from 2,095 to 2,755, with Beijing alone gaining 33 billionaires last year; however, New York only gained seven last year by comparison.
However, although Beijing has overtaken New York as the city with the largest number of billionaires in the world, the total value of all billionaires’ assets is still lower than that of New York; according to data from Fubis, the total assets of New York billionaires are about 550 billion yuan, still much higher than Beijing’s 490 billion yuan.
The richest person in New York City is former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ranking first in New York, 14th in the U.S. and 20th in the world with 59 billion yuan, while the richest person in Beijing is Zhang Yiming, CEO of TikTok, ranking first in Beijing, 10th in China and 39th in the world with 35.6 billion yuan.
John Catsimatidis, a New York supermarket chain tycoon worth $33 billion, said the state’s taxes are too high, leading to a serious exodus of wealthy people.
Unless New York improves its tax system, it will only continue to go downhill,” he said. Many wealthy people choose to buy private jets to live in Florida and commute to New York for work because the cost of purchasing the plane, fuel, maintenance, and renting a ramp still add up to be cheaper than New York’s income taxes.”
As a result, Kate Simarditis said that although he is preparing to run for governor of New York, he still prefers to settle outside the state to avoid being subject to high income taxes.
Ronn Torossian, founder of 5W Public Relations in New York, also noted that he knows of many wealthy people who have moved out of New York because of the high tax rate, and he himself is considering moving his corporate headquarters to Miami; “A lot of rich people have decided to move to Palm Beach, Fla. (Palm Beach) and won’t be returning to New York”.
Beijing, the capital of China, has overtaken New York City to take the top spot on the Fubishi list of the world’s billionaire cities; the picture shows a bird’s eye view of downtown Beijing from above.
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