Larry Page Ditches California for Miami, Sidesteps $15 Billion Wealth Tax
Google co-founder Larry Page has bought two waterfront estates in Miami’s Coconut Grove for a combined $173.4 million, locking in Florida residency ahead of California’s proposed one-time 5% tax on billionaires.
Page paid $101.5 million in December for the 4.5-acre Banyan Ridge compound, formerly owned by the late restaurateur Jonathan Lewis, then closed on a nearby 10,400-square-foot home for $71.9 million on January 5. The timing was deliberate.
California’s Proposition 40 would hit anyone worth over $1 billion who was a state resident on January 1, 2026, taxing worldwide assets at 5%. With Page’s fortune north of $270 billion, the bill could have approached $15 billion.
Florida has no income tax, no capital gains tax, and no wealth tax. Page’s family office and other entities were also reincorporated out of California around the same period. He is not alone. Google’s other co-founder Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, and several other high-net-worth tech figures have made similar moves.
Stanford economists Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh estimate that publicly known departures have already removed nearly 30% of the tax base. Their analysis suggests the measure might raise only about $30 billion instead of the $100 billion backers advertised, and that lost ongoing income-tax revenue could leave the state worse off by roughly $39 billion in present-value terms.