«UI woke up one day and realized that, just because I was born so lucky, I had so much more than anyone else. I don’t think I’ve slept well since I realized that.’ So she explained the reasons for her activism Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, co-founder (with brother Walt) of The Walt Disney Company. She’s there too $110 million heiress, among super-wealthy supporters of the petition Tax Extreme Wealth. An open letter signed by nearly 300 millionaires who they ask governments to pay more taxes. With them, world-renowned economists and political representatives of almost all the G20 countries, for an initiative promoted by Oxfam, Patriotic Millionaires, Institute for Policy Studies, Earth 4 All and Millionaires for Humanity.
“More taxes for the super rich”, the appeal of 300 millionaires and economists to the leaders of the G20
The issue of more taxes for the rich is a hot one. In the last decade the world’s billionaires have in fact more than doubled their assets, which went from 5,600 to 11,800 billion dollars. Between March 2020 and November 2022, for every $1 increase in the net worth of the bottom 90% on the planet, the average worth of a Forbes billionaire increased by $1.7 million.
Property taxes are worth… 4 cents
Yet, on a global scale, for every dollar of tax revenue only 4 cents comes from property taxes. And under current rules, half of the world’s millionaires will not be subject to any inheritance tax. In other words, he will be able to transfer, tax-free, a wealth of 5 trillion dollars to his heirs.
Among the most prosperous economies in the OECD area, on average, the highest marginal tax rate on personal income rose from 58% in 1980 to 44% in 2016 (or more recent years). In the same period and with reference to the same group of countries, the tax rate on dividends received by natural persons increased from 61% to 42%. Average (out of 117 countries) the tax rate on financial income now stands at just 18%.
The goal: more equal, dynamic and cohesive societies
Central to the text of the open letter published on the eve of the G20 summit in New Delhi is the urgent request that a new international agreement on the taxation of large estates. The goal is “to prevent the exorbitant concentration of wealth from jeopardizing our common future”. While more and more people around the world are “crying for change” that pays our economies are more inclusive and our societies are more equitable, dynamic and cohesive.
Millionaires, economists, artists: the signatories of the appeal asking for more taxes
Among the signatories (here the complete list) appear Brian Enothe British director Richard Curtis, Senator Bernie Sanders, the former prime ministers of Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the US deputy Brendan Boyle, former and current MEPs including Aurore Lalucq. Former UN General Assembly President Maria Espinosa and economists such as Gabriel Zucman, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Jayati Ghosh, Kate Raworth, Jason Hickel and Lucas Chancel.
Tax breaks for the rich in the name of false promises
«Decades of tax cuts for the richest, based on the false promise that wealth at the top would benefit everyone, they have contributed to exacerbating inequalities, bringing them to alarming levels”. Hence the request that the G20 act immediately and intervene to reverse the course and increase the levy on assets and the highest incomes. An intervention that in short, it increases the fairness of tax systems.
Basically they are asking for «new tax regimes – at national and international level – which eliminate the ability of the ultra-wealthy to avoid paying their dues, and introduce new rules that result in higher taxes on extreme wealth».
All over the world, people are desperate for change, the letter said. Public polls across all G20 countries show overwhelming support for policy action to curb inequality and tax extreme wealth.
The gap between rich and poor has destabilized society
But what perhaps amazes us most is that among these people who imagine a different world there are also the super rich.
How much it is, however, explains it Morris Pearl, president of the Patriotic Millionaires and former chief executive officer of BlackRock, the largest investment firm in the world, headquartered in New York. «The growing gap between rich and poor has destabilized the global economy, weakened social cohesion and favored the emergence of extreme and populist political proposals. As a very wealthy person, representing an organization of like-minded wealthy people, I ask the G20 to tax us. The leaders of the world’s major economies must coordinate swift and decisive action to reduce the dangerous levels of inequality we have reached. Failure to effectively tax the great wealth will result in a weakening of the global economy, the decline of democratic institutions, and worsening social unrest. The G20 must act.”
On the introduction into Europe of a tax on large fortunes was dI recently presented a European Citizens’ Initiative and the collection of signatures will start soon.
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