Highlights: 260 billionaires sign a platform to implement a wealth tax. This year, more than 260 billionaires have signed this call ( Proud to pay more ), while during the first year of this initiative there were only a little more than 100. And this, while according to NGO Oxfam, the five biggest fortunes on the planet have seen their assets double since 2020. According to the Survation Institute, almost three-quarters of billionaires in G20 countries would support an increase in wealth taxes. The European Tax Observatory calls for a minimum tax of 2%, which could bring in some 230 billion euros per year.

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum which is being held until this Friday in Davos, Switzerland, billionaires from around the world have signed for the third consecutive year a platform calling on the leaders…

260 billionaires sign a platform to implement a wealth tax

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum which is being held until this Friday in Davos, Switzerland, billionaires from around the world have signed a platform for the third consecutive year calling on world leaders to implement a wealth tax .

A movement that is growing.

[Illustrative image] US dollar bills at a currency exchange office in Karachi, Pakistan, December 3, 2018. © Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

By: RFI Follow

This year, more than

260 billionaires

have signed this call (

Proud to pay more

), while during the first year of this initiative there were only a little more than 100. And this, while according to NGO Oxfam, the five biggest fortunes on the planet have seen their assets double since 2020.

🔴 EXCLUSIVE - Since 2020, the 5 richest men in the world have more than doubled their fortune while the cumulative wealth of 5 billion people has fallen.

Dividends, media, real estate: how billionaires monopolize power 👉 https://t.co/BaFHGLzdsq pic.twitter.com/FNC9ZwgPSB

— Oxfam France (@oxfamfrance) January 15, 2024

“

We are surprised that you have not answered a simple question that we have been asking for three years: when are you going to tax extreme wealth?

» The call could not be clearer.

According to these 260 billionaires who signed this forum calling for the implementation of a wealth tax, the current trajectory at the global level is not good for anyone.

And this long taboo subject is now more and more present in public debate, which does not prevent the problem from worsening, as proven by numerous studies which demonstrate that, proportionally, the rich pay less taxes. than the most modest households.

An aberration that must be corrected, believe these more than 260 billionaires, of which only four French people are part.

And to warn that "if the elected representatives of the world's major economies do not take measures to combat the spectacular increase in economic inequality, the consequences will continue to be catastrophic for society."

According to the Survation

Institute

, almost three-quarters of billionaires in G20 countries would support an increase in wealth taxes.

An initiative also praised by the

European Tax Observatory

which calls for a minimum tax of 2%, which could bring in some 230 billion euros per year.

Proof that this idea is gaining ground.

Also listenAre the taxes of French billionaires too light?

In Austria, a millionaire demanding to be taxed redistributes her inheritance

Marlene Engelhorn, a 31-year-old Austrian heiress, will give up 25 million euros, to denounce

the “failure

” of States to stop the increase in inequalities.

“

I inherited a fortune and with it power, without ever having done anything to deserve it.
And the state doesn’t even want me to pay inheritance tax

,” denounces the descendant of the founder of the German chemical giant BASF, Friedrich Engelhorn, in a press release.

Present at the meeting of economic and political elites this week in Davos, this activist with short brown hair has long demanded to be taxed more.

Like hundreds of American “

patriotic millionaires

”, she founded the “

Tax me now

” initiative in the German-speaking world.

Before taking action after the death of her grandmother in September 2022. She concocted an original solution: 10,000 letters were sent this month to randomly selected Austrian citizens.

In the end, 50 names will be selected.

Their mission is to propose ideas “

benefiting society as a whole

” to redistribute 90% of its inheritance.

All-expenses paid working sessions will be organized in the city of Salzburg between March and June.

Marlene Engelhorn did not even grant herself a say in the outcome of the discussions.

Only if there is no consensus will she take back the tidy sum at stake, promising to think of a new method.

Shocked that those who “

struggle to make ends meet despite having a full-time job pay taxes

”, when inheritance taxes were abolished in 2008 in the very conservative Alpine country, the thirty-year-old decided to take matters into account. hand.

“

Faced with the failure of the government, it is up to us to repair

” the injustices, Marlene Engelhorn continues in her text.

In Austria, she recalls, a country without a minimum wage, “

there is no real wealth tax either

”.

(With AFP)

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260 billionaires sign a platform to implement a wealth tax

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