Tax the Rich to ensure everyone contributes to the common good by EU Tax Observatory, Tax Justice Network, Oxfam 2:17pm 15th Jun, 2024   Mar. 2024    The Forbes 2024 Billionaires list reports that the number of worldwide billionaires grew by 141 in the past year, with 2,781 people holding wealth that exceeds $1 billion. These people own combined assets of $14.2 trillion, exceeding the gross domestic product of every country in the world except the U.S. and China.    Their collective wealth has risen by 120% in the past decade, at the same time as billions of people across the world have seen their living standards decrease in the face of inflation and the cost of living crisis.    “It’s been an amazing year for the world’s richest people, with more billionaires around the world than ever before,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ wealth editor. “Even during times of financial uncertainty for many, the super-rich continue to thrive.”    Luke Hildyard, the executive director for the High Pay Centre thinktank, said: “The billionaire list is essentially an annual calculation of how much of the wealth created by the global economy is captured by a tiny caste of oligarchs rather than being used to benefit humanity as a whole. It should be the most urgent mission to spread this wealth more evenly.”    While the global population is "living through incredibly unequal times, lurching from one crisis to the next," says Robert Palmer, executive director of Tax Justice U.K., the richest people in the world amass "extraordinary levels of wealth."    "World leaders need to ensure the super rich are paying their fair share, for example through introducing wealth taxes. This would help provide the resources needed to tackle multiple crises from hunger, to inequality and climate change.    June 2024    A blueprint for a coordinated minimum effective taxation standard for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, by Gabriel Zucman. (EU Tax Observatory)    This report presents the proposal for an internationally coordinated standard ensuring an effective taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals. In the proposal, individuals with more than $1 billion in wealth would be required to pay a minimum amount of tax annually, equal to 2% of their wealth.    This standard could be flexibly implemented by participating countries through a variety of domestic instruments, including a presumptive income tax, an income tax on a broad notion of income, or a wealth tax.    The report presents evidence that contemporary tax systems fail to tax ultra-high-net-worth individuals effectively, clarifies the case for international coordination to address this issue, analyzes implementation challenges, and provides revenue estimations.    The main conclusions are that (i) building on recent progress in international tax cooperation, such a common standard has become technically feasible; (ii) it could be enforced successfully even if all countries did not adopt it, by strengthening current exit taxes and implementing “tax collector of last resort” mechanisms as in the coordinated minimum tax on multinational companies;    (iii) a minimum tax on billionaires equal to 2% of their wealth would raise $200-$250 billion per year globally from about 3,000 taxpayers; extending the tax to centimillionaires would add $100-$140 billion; (iv) this international standard would effectively address regressive features of contemporary tax systems at the top of the wealth distribution;    (v) it would not substitute for, but support domestic progressive tax policies, by improving transparency about top-end wealth, reducing incentives to engage in tax avoidance, and preventing a race to the bottom; (vi) its economic impact must be assessed in light of the observed pre-tax rate of return to wealth for ultra-high-net-worth individuals which has been 7.5% on average per year (net of inflation) over the last four decades, and of the current effective tax rate of billionaires, equivalent to 0.3% of their wealth.    http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/a-blueprint-for-a-coordinated-minimum-effective-taxation-standard-for-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals/ http://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/jun/25/international-scheme-to-tax-billionaires-wealth-technically-feasible-study-finds http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/global-tax-evasion-report-2024    June 2024    World’s billionaires should pay minimum 2% wealth tax. (Guardian News)    The world’s 3,000 billionaires should pay a minimum 2% tax on their fast-growing wealth to raise $U.S.250bn a year for the global fight against poverty, inequality and global warming, ministers from four leading economies have recommended.    In a sign of growing international support for a tax on the ultra-rich, finance minsters from Brazil, Germany, South Africa and Spain say a 2% tax would help to raise much-needed public funds after the economic shocks of the pandemic, rising cost of living impacts on populations exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine and climate change.    “It is time that the international community gets serious about tackling inequality and financing global public goods,” the ministers say in a Guardian comment piece.    “One of the key instruments that governments have for promoting more equality is tax policy. Not only does it have the potential to increase the fiscal space governments have to invest in social protection, education and climate protection. Designed in a progressive way, it also ensures that everyone in society contributes to the common good in line with their ability to pay. A fair share contribution enhances social welfare.”    Brazil chairs the G20 group of leading developed and developing countries and put a billionaire tax on the agenda at a meeting of finance ministers earlier this year. Economist Gabriel Zucman from the EU Tax Observatory will provide the technical details of the plan to the G20 group in June.    Gabriel Zucman said: “Billionaires have the lowest effective tax rate of any social group. Having people with the highest ability to pay tax paying the least – I don’t think anybody supports that.”    Research from Oxfam published this year found that the boom in asset prices during and after the Covid pandemic meant billionaires were $3.3tn – or 34% – wealthier at the end of 2023 than they were in 2020. Meanwhile, a study from the World Bank showed that the pandemic had brought poverty reduction to a halt.    The opinion piece, signed by ministers from Germany, Spain, Brazil and South Africa states: “The tax would be designed as a minimum levy equivalent to 2% of the wealth of the super-rich. They would be obliged to contribute more towards the common good,” the ministers say.    “Persisting loopholes in the system imply that high-net-worth individuals can minimise their income taxes. Global billionaires pay only the equivalent of up to 0.5% of their wealth in personal income tax. It is crucial to ensure that our tax systems provide certainty, sufficient revenues, and treat all of our citizens fairly.”    The ministers say there would need to be steps to counter the use of tax havens. The levy would be designed to prevent billionaires who choose to live in Monaco for example, but make their money in larger economies such as the UK or France, from reducing their tax bills below a global agreed minimum. If one country did not impose the minimum tax, another country could claim the income.    “Of course, the argument that billionaires can easily shift their fortunes to low-tax jurisdictions and thus avoid the levy is a strong one. And this is why such a tax reform belongs on the agenda of the G20. International cooperation and global agreements are key to making such tax effective. What the international community managed to do with the global minimum tax on multinational companies, it can do with billionaires,” the ministers say.    Gabriel Zucman said there was overwhelming public support for this proposal, with opinion polls showing up to 80% of voters in favour. Even so, the economist said he was prepared for stiff resistance.    “I don’t want to be naive. I know the super-rich will fight,” he said. “They have a hatred of taxes on wealth. They will lobby governments. They will use the media they own.”    * Finance minsters from Brazil, Germany, South Africa and Spain:    "In the past two decades, we have witnessed a significant increase in inequalities within most countries, with the income gap between the top 10% and the bottom 50% effectively doubling.. One of the key instruments that governments have for promoting more equality is tax policy. Global billionaires pay only the equivalent of up to 0.5% of their wealth in personal income tax. It is crucial to ensure that our tax systems raise sufficient revenues, and treat all of our citizens fairly.    With exactly these goals in mind, Brazil brought the proposal for a global minimum tax on billionaires to the negotiation table of the world’s major economies for the first time.    Currently, there are about 3,000 billionaires worldwide. The tax would be designed as a minimum levy equivalent to 2% of the wealth of the super-rich. The argument behind such tax is straightforward: we need to enhance the ability of our tax systems to fulfil the principle of fairness, such that contributions are in line with the capacity to pay. Persisting loopholes in the system imply that high-net-worth individuals can minimise their income taxes.    A coordinated global minimum levy on billionaires would constitute a significant step in this direction. It would generate much-needed revenues for governments to invest in public goods such as health, education, the environment, and infrastructure – from which everybody benefits. Such a tax would potentially unlock over $300bn in annual tax revenues globally".    http://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/apr/25/ministers-of-germany-brazil-south-africa-and-spain-why-we-need-a-global-tax-on-billionaires http://www.taxobservatory.eu/gabriel-zucmans-address-at-the-g20-finance-ministers-meeting-on-february-29-2024/ http://gabriel-zucman.eu http://wid.world/news-article/paris-conference-calls-for-un-tax-convention-to-combat-inequality/    May 2024    Civil Society recommendations on International Taxation for G20 Finance Ministers    For the first time, the G20 Finance Track has directly received recommendations from civil society organizations, marking a historic moment in international tax policy discussions.    At the G20 International Tax Symposium, Nathalie Beghin from INESC (one of our partners at the Initiative for Human Rights in Fiscal Policy) presented a document with recommendations on behalf of civil society agencies to Brazil's Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad. These recommendations aim to guide G20 Finance Ministers towards more equitable and just international tax policies.    The initiative, led by Brazil’s G20 presidency, invited civil society to contribute directly to the dialogue on international taxation which took place in Brasilia on May 22 and 23, 2024, to discuss issues such as the building of a United Nations Convention on Tax, and an international approach to tax wealth.    The recommendations were developed collectively by over 40 national, Latin American, and international civil society organizations, reflecting a broad consensus on the need for inclusive and fair tax systems.    To María Emilia Mamberti, CESR’s Co-Director of Program, “This signifies an important milestone in the efforts of the human rights movement to connect tax and rights. It moved debates in the right direction to understand taxation not as a technical issue only pertaining to “tax payers”, but as a key instrument to enhance living standards for all rights holders”.    http://cesr.org/cesr-and-civil-society-allies-present-historic-taxation-recommendations-to-brazils-finance-minister-and-g20-authorities    22 Mar. 2024    UN agrees plan for wealth tax law blueprint. (Tax Justice Network)    The UN tax committee has agreed by consensus to issue guidance on designing wealth tax laws, opening the door for countries to tax extreme wealth. It is estimated that there is more than twice as much wealth hidden offshore beyond the rule of law than there are printed dollars and euros in circulation today.    The UN guidance will provide countries with a blueprint to implement at home, giving countries both the technical know-how and political backing to tax the wealth of the richest members of society – something that most countries have shied away from under fierce lobbying pressure.    Approval for the drafting of a model law included in the guidance was briefly delayed following requests from some countries for minor changes, including relabelling the “model law” as an “example law”.    Nonetheless, the agreement on the guidance signals a historic shift in global consensus on taxing extreme wealth and is the latest demonstration of the UN’s ability to push the needle on tax reform at a globally inclusive scale.    Contrary to expectations, the OECD and other objectors who had voiced opposition to the model law in previous committee sessions did not make a decisive intervention during Thursday’s meeting. Analysts at the Tax Justice Network suspect that the recent prioritisation of wealth taxes by the G20, championed by Brazil, was a factor behind the lack of pushback. The transparency and public scrutiny of UN discussions, compared to the closed-door opacity of OECD processes, may also have reduced the willingness to take blocking positions.    Alex Cobham, chief executive at the Tax Justice Network said: “This is another victory on tax secured at the UN through the leadership of global South countries, but for the benefit of people everywhere. Enhancing the technical and political space for national governments to pursue progressive tax measures will, over time, allow countries to generate greater revenues to invest in inclusive public services, while at the same time tackling the extreme wealth inequalities that damage all of our societies. We’re starting to see a consistent pattern, where the transparency of tax discussions at the UN leads to much better outcomes. The concurrent process to negotiate a UN framework convention on international tax cooperation offers the world an unprecedented opportunity to lock in that dynamic, and finally to fix the international tax rules that cost us all so much.”    http://taxjustice.net/press/un-agrees-plan-for-wealth-tax-law-blueprint/ http://taxjustice.net/2024/05/28/litany-of-failure-new-briefing-sets-out-oecds-manifold-shortcomings-in-international-tax-talks/ http://taxjustice.net/reports/the-fiscal-social-contract-and-the-human-rights-economy http://taxjustice.net/all-latest-activity/ http://taxjustice.net/blog/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/wealthy-countries-push-back-as-un-moves-ahead-with-global-tax-plan/    Feb. 2024    Less than eight cents in every dollar raised in tax revenue in G20 countries now comes from taxes on wealth, reveals new analysis by Oxfam ahead of the first meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Sao Paulo, Brazil.    By comparison, more than 32 cents in every dollar (over four times as much) is collected from taxes on goods and services. Taxes on food and other necessities, for example, shift more of the tax burden onto lower-income families.    Oxfam’s research also found that the share of national income going to the top 1 percent of earners in G20 countries has increased by 45 percent over the last four decades. During the same period, the top tax rates on their incomes has fallen by roughly a third (from around 60 percent in 1980 to 40 percent in 2022).    The top 1 percent of earners in G20 countries made more than $18 trillion in income 2022, a figure higher than the GDP of China.    In countries including Brazil, France, Italy, the UK and US, the super-rich pay an effective tax rate lower than the average worker. G20 countries are home to nearly four out of five of the world’s billionaires.    "In country after country, a war on fair taxation has coincided with a war on democracy, putting more money and power into the hands of a tiny, inequality-fueling elite. As the finance ministers of the world's largest economies gather this week, this contest takes center stage: will they reclaim their democracies by taxing the super-rich?" said Katia Maia, Executive Director of Oxfam Brazil.    Brazil, at the helm of the G20, has plans to forge the first global agreement on taxing the super-rich to reduce global inequality. A recent poll has revealed that nearly three-quarters of millionaires in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth, and over half think extreme wealth is a “threat to democracy.”    Higher taxes on the wealth and income of the richest could raise the trillions of dollars needed to tackle both inequality and climate breakdown. For example, Oxfam estimates that a wealth tax of up to 5 percent on the G20’s multimillionaires and billionaires could raise nearly $1.5 trillion a year.    This would be enough to end global hunger, help low- and middle-income countries adapt to climate change, and bring the world back on track to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) —and still leave more than $546 billion to invest in inequality-busting public services and climate action in G20 countries.    “A fair tax system can curb inequality and foster healthier, more inclusive societies,” said Maia. “Higher taxes for the super-rich means being able to invest in working families, protecting the climate, and making important public services like education and healthcare available to all. It also means being able to repair holes in social safety nets, to soften the blow of future crises.”    http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/less-8-cents-every-dollar-tax-revenue-collected-g20-countries-comes-taxes-wealth http://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp-survival-of-the-richest-160123-en.pdf http://taxjustice.net/press/un-agrees-plan-for-wealth-tax-law-blueprint/ http://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/apr/25/billionaires-should-pay-minimum-two-per-cent-wealth-tax-say-g20-ministers http://www.taxobservatory.eu/gabriel-zucmans-address-at-the-g20-finance-ministers-meeting-on-february-29-2024/ http://tinyurl.com/3bbbhj29    Jan. 2024    The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 —at a rate of $14 million per hour— while nearly five billion people have been made poorer, reveals a new Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power. If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won’t be eradicated for another 229 years.    “Inequality Inc.”, published today as business elites gather in the Swiss resort town of Davos, reveals that seven out of ten of the world’s biggest corporations have a billionaire as CEO or principal shareholder. These corporations are worth $10.2 trillion, equivalent to more than the combined GDPs of all countries in Africa and Latin America.    “We’re witnessing the beginnings of a decade of division, with billions of people shouldering the economic shockwaves of pandemic, inflation and war, while billionaires’ fortunes boom. This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.    “Runaway corporate and monopoly power is an inequality-generating machine: through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatizing the state, and spurring climate breakdown, corporations are funneling endless wealth to their ultra-rich owners. But they’re also funneling power, undermining our democracies and our rights. No corporation or individual should have this much power over our economies and our lives —to be clear, nobody should have a billion dollars”.    The past three years’ supercharged surge in extreme wealth has solidified while global poverty remains mired at pre-pandemic levels. Billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, and their wealth has grown three times faster than the rate of inflation.    Despite representing just 21 percent of the global population, rich countries in the Global North own 69 percent of global wealth and are home to 74 percent of the world’s billionaire wealth.    Share ownership overwhelmingly benefits the richest. The top 1 percent own 43 percent of all global financial assets. They hold 48 percent of financial wealth in the Middle East, 50 percent in Asia and 47 percent in Europe.    Mirroring the fortunes of the super-rich, large firms are set to smash their annual profit records in 2023. 148 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in $1.8 trillion in total net profits in the year to June 2023, a 52 percent jump compared to average net profits in 2018-2021. Their windfall profits surged to nearly $700 billion. The report finds that for every $100 of profit made by 96 major corporations between July 2022 and June 2023, $82 was paid out to rich shareholders.    Bernard Arnault is the world’s second richest man who presides over luxury goods empire LVMH, which has been fined by France‘s anti-trust body. He also owns France’s biggest media outlet, Les Echos, as well as Le Parisien.    Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, holds a “near-monopoly” on cement in Nigeria. His empire’s expansion into oil has raised concerns about a new private monopoly.    Jeff Bezos’s fortune of $167.4 billion increased by $32.7 billion since the beginning of the decade. The US government has sued Amazon, the source of Bezos’ fortune, for wielding its “monopoly power” to hike prices, degrade service for shoppers and stifle competition.    “Monopolies harm innovation and crush workers and smaller businesses. The world hasn’t forgotten how pharma monopolies deprived millions of people of COVID-19 vaccines, creating a racist vaccine apartheid, while minting a new club of billionaires,” said Behar.    People worldwide are working harder and longer hours, often for poverty wages in precarious and unsafe jobs. The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, equivalent to nearly a month (25 days) of lost wages for each worker.    New Oxfam analysis of World Benchmarking Alliance data on more than 1,600 of the largest corporations worldwide shows that 0.4 percent of them are publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and support a living wage in their value chains. It would take 1,200 years for a woman working in the health and social sector to earn what the average CEO in the biggest 100 Fortune companies earns in a year.    Oxfam's report also shows how a "war on taxation" by corporations has seen the effective corporate tax rate fall by roughly a third in recent decades, while corporations have relentlessly privatized the public sector and segregated services like education and water.    “We have the evidence. We know the history. Public power can rein in runaway corporate power and inequality —shaping the market to be fairer and free from billionaire control.    Governments must intervene to break up monopolies, empower workers, tax these massive corporate profits and, crucially, invest in a new era of public goods and services,” said Behar.    “Every corporation has a responsibility to act but very few are. Governments must step up. There is action that lawmakers can learn from, from US anti-monopoly government enforcers suing Amazon in a landmark case, to the European Commission wanting Google to break up its online advertising business, and Africa’s historic fight to reshape international tax rules.”    Oxfam is calling on governments to rapidly and radically reduce the gap between the super-rich and the rest of society by:    Revitalizing the state. A dynamic and effective state is the best bulwark against extreme corporate power. Governments should ensure universal provision of healthcare and education, and explore publicly-delivered goods and public options in sectors from energy to transportation.    Reining in corporate power, including by breaking up monopolies and democratizing patent rules. This also means legislating for living wages, capping CEO pay, and new taxes on the super-rich and corporations, including permanent wealth and excess profit taxes. Oxfam estimates that a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could generate $1.8 trillion a year.    Reinventing business. Competitive and profitable businesses don’t have to be shackled by shareholder greed. Democratically-owned businesses better equalize the proceeds of business. If just 10 percent of US businesses were employee-owned, this could double the wealth share of the poorest half of the US population, including doubling the average wealth of Black households.    http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/wealth-five-richest-men-doubles-2020-five-billion-people-made-poorer-decade-division http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/inequality-inc-how-corporate-power-divides-our-world-and-the-need-for-a-new-era-621583/ http://actionaid.org/publications/2024/taxing-windfall-profits-fossil-fuels-and-financial-companies-can-boost-climate http://actionaid.org/publications/2024/briefings-climate-justice-and-finance http://www.ipsnews.net/2024/01/worlds-richest-men-leave-women-far-behind-amid-rising-economic-inequalities/ http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/new-report-taken-not-earned-how-monopolists-drive-the-worlds-power-and-wealth-divide/ http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-0 http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/economy-and-ecology/addressing-gender-inequality-in-climate-response-7367/ http://globaltaxjustice.org/news/upholding-womens-rights-by-taxing-fairly-for-gender-transformative-care/    Jan. 2024    Asked about the status of women in a world of rising economic inequalities, Rebecca Riddell, policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America, told IPS: “Women pay the highest price for a broken global economy”.    Globally, she pointed out, men own US$105 trillion more wealth than women—equivalent to more than four times the size of the US economy—and women earn just 51 cents for every $1 made by men.    “Women are also especially harmed by the policies that fuel our inequality crisis, like tax breaks for the rich and cuts to public services,” said Riddell, one of the authors of the Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power.    They carry out the vast majority of unpaid care work, which is vital to keeping our communities and economies afloat, and their labor is constantly undervalued in the workplace, she noted.    “We found it would take 1,200 years for women working in the health and social sector to earn what the average CEO at the biggest Fortune 100 companies makes in just one year,” declared Riddell.    Jan. 2024    Extreme Inequality is a Human Rights Issue, by Andrew Stroehlein for Human Rights Watch    As the annual gathering of the extreme elite kicks off in Davos today, I’m reminded of an argument I often have with an old friend.    It always starts with some news item about the number of billionaires somewhere: “the US is doing great – look at the number of billionaires they have!” Or, “you can see China’s getting better by the increasing number of billionaires there.” Or, “Look at the number of billionaires in India now!”    The prospect of the world’s first trillionaire has him almost unbearably excited: “Who will it be?”    To these friendly provocations, I eventually crack and respond with something like: does humanity really need a trillionaire? In what way will the world be a better place when someone becomes the first trillionaire?    Then, I remind him that the number of super-rich people says nothing about the greatness of a country. Greatness, to me, has far more to do with the overall happiness of its population. Some say billionaires create wealth (and therefore happiness, in their eyes), but, practically by definition, it looks more like they’re hoarding it.    Vast riches have always sparked admiration among many folks like my friend, but they’ve also increased envy and resentment among others. A system perceived as unfairly benefitting a tiny few while the vast majority are essentially told to live on the scraps of what the rich leave behind doesn’t sound like a stable system to me. I don’t see any national benefit there.    What’s more, extreme inequality is a human rights issue. Among other things, it contributes to corruption and mismanagement of public resources, which further reduces access to the keys to a dignified life: affordable healthcare, quality education, adequate housing, a living wage, social protection, and safe drinking water.    Human Rights Watch research frequently exposes how people in poverty are often more vulnerable to having their rights violated. Extreme disparities in wealth mean extreme disparities in power, and thus a greater potential for human rights abuses, which, of course, tends to happen more to those without power than to those with it.    To coincide with the start of billionaires’ private jets arriving for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam has published a new report on global inequality. It reads: “Since 2020, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes. During the same period, almost five billion people globally have become poorer. Hardship and hunger are a daily reality for many people worldwide. At current rates, it will take 230 years to end poverty, but we could have our first trillionaire in 10 years.” That doesn’t sound like greatness to me.    http://www.hrw.org/topic/economic-justice-and-rights/poverty-and-inequality http://wid.world/news-article/whats-new-about-wealth-inequality-in-the-world/    Oct. 2023    Small global billionaire tax could yield $250 billion annually, reports the EU Tax Observatory    Governments should clampdown on tax evasion by billionaires by introducing a global minimum wealth tax which could raise $250 billion annually, the EU Tax Observatory said this week.    If levied, the sum would be equivalent to only 2% of the nearly $13 trillion in wealth owned by the 2,700 billionaires globally, the research group hosted at the Paris School of Economics said.    Currently billionaires' effective personal tax is often far less than what other taxpayers of more modest means pay because they can park wealth in shell companies sheltering them from income tax, the group said in its 2024 Global Tax Evasion Report.    "In our view, this is difficult to justify because it undermines the sustainability of tax systems and the social acceptability of taxation," the observatory's director Gabriel Zucman told journalists.    Billionaires have been operating on the “border of legality” in using shell companies to avoid tax and the world’s wealthiest individuals should be charged a 2% levy on their wealth, the report states.    Billionaires have been pushing the limits of the law by moving certain types of income, including dividends from company shares, through dedicated holding companies that usually serve no other purpose.    “These holding companies are in a grey zone between avoidance and evasion,” the report said. “To the extent that they are created with the purpose of avoiding the income tax, they can legitimately be seen as closer to evasion.”    These types of loopholes allow the super-rich to avoid certain forms of income tax, resulting in effective tax rates worth just 0%-0.6% of their total wealth, the report found. Billionaires' personal tax in the United States is estimated to be close to just 0.5% and as low as zero in France, the Observatory estimated.    Shell companies can also stand in as nominal owners for luxury properties in expensive cities such as London. “Real estate continues to provide ample opportunities for the rich to avoid and evade taxes,” the report said.    The shell companies also fall outside the tools that have so far been used to combat tax avoidance, including the automatic exchange of banking information, which is followed by more than 100 countries.    “To date no serious attempt has been made to address this situation, which risks undermining the social acceptability of existing tax systems,” the report said.    The Observatory, which deployed more than 100 researchers to gather the report’s data, is calling on global leaders to use the next G20 summit in Brazil to launch action over a global minimum 2% annual tax to be levied on the wealth – rather than the income – of the world’s richest people.    The idea is based on the 2021 agreement between 140 countries and territories to impose a global minimum tax rate of 15% on the biggest multinational companies.    Zucman said: “This is the logical next step after the global minimum tax on multinational companies – which demonstrates that it is possible for countries to agree on minimum tax rates.”    He said minimum rates were the most powerful tools to address loopholes in existing tax systems because they ensure that no matter what the avoidance measures used, the tax collected cannot fall below a set amount.    The reform is far from perfect. The search for a broad consensus led to the application of a relatively low global tax rate (rather than a base rate of 25% many recommended), accompanied by numerous exemptions that limit its scope.    Commenting on the report, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said: “Tax evasion, and, more broadly, tax avoidance, is not inevitable; it is the result of policy choices – or the failure to make policy choices that act to stop it.”    He said that a billionaire’s tax could help governments fund important public services, provide funds to address global hunger and provide support to those impacted by extreme weather events as a result of the climate crisis.    “So many people struggle to make ends meet yet pay the taxes their governments ask of them,” Stiglitz said. “We need to make sure those at the top of the income ladder who certainly have the financial means don’t wriggle out of them.”    In the absence of a broad international agreement for a minimum tax on billionaires, Zucman said a “coalition of willing countries” could unilaterally lead the way.    http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/global-tax-evasion-report-2024/ http://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2023/10/23/keeping-up-the-pressure-to-combat-tax-evasion_6197046_23.html http://taxjustice.net/2023/10/17/joint-statement-organisations-applaud-un-committees-work-on-net-wealth-taxes/ http://taxjustice.net/press/world-to-lose-4-7-trillion-to-tax-havens-over-next-decade-unless-un-tax-convention-adopted-countries-warned/ http://taxjustice.net/reports/the-state-of-tax-justice-2023/    http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/survival-of-the-richest-how-we-must-tax-the-super-rich-now-to-fight-inequality-621477/ http://www.icij.org/tags/tax-havens/ http://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/1-trillion-shade http://missingprofits.world/ http://www.icrict.com/ http://taxjustice.net/2022/09/28/to-protect-childrens-right-to-education-governments-must-fight-tax-abuse/ http://www.cesr.org/why-tax-justice-is-critical-to-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/ http://factipanel.org/press-release/un-panel-end-financial-abuses-to-save-people-and-planet.html
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