Reich Flight Tax

In Nazi Germany, the use of the Reich Flight Tax shifted away from dissuading wealthy citizens from moving overseas and was instead used as a form of "legalized theft" to confiscate Jewish assets.

The tax was steadily increased and used as a "partial expropriation"[4]: 12  to seize the assets of Jewish refugees who were persecuted and driven to flee their homeland.

[5] The German government limited free capital flows and controlled the exchange of foreign currency, while also implementing austerity measures and raising the income tax.

The Reich Flight Tax was one of many other measures implemented by the "Fourth Decree of the Reich President on the Protection of the Economy and Finance and on the Defense of Civil Peace" (German: Vierte Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zur Sicherung von Wirtschaft und Finanzen und zum Schutze des inneren Friedens, published in the Reichsgesetzblatt 1931 I, pp. 699–745.

The names of those abroad who evaded this penalty were listed in a "Tax wanted poster" published in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, and were to be arrested in the event of a visit to Germany.

Prior to the Machtergreifung in 1933, the funds raised through the Reich Flight Tax were comparably small, amounting to just under 1 million ℛℳ in 1932.

Bank deposits and security holdings were moved into frozen accounts, from which funds could only be transferred abroad with the payment of high penalties.

A replacement law that was discussed in the cabinet was not introduced in the Bundestag, as various measures against capital flight were already in place through the overseeing allied powers.

59; Restitution of Identifiable Property" ordered the repayment of the Reich Flight Tax, insofar as the payments could be linked to emigration of persecuted peoples.

The refund payments were part of a larger program of Wiedergutmachung, also including repayments of the Judenvermögensabgabe ("Jewish Capital Levy").