All States must prioritise the adoption of a minimum living wage by OHCHR, UNRISD, World Inequality Database, agencies 8:20am 28th Oct, 2025   All States must prioritise the adoption of a minimum living wage so that workers are able to meet their basic needs and those of their family. (OHCHR)    To date, over one in five workers globally live in poverty despite being employed, and almost one in ten live in extreme poverty. Millions of workers continue to earn wages and incomes that are insufficient for a decent standard of living.    Women, particularly those in low-paid, informal and care-related sectors, are disproportionately represented among the working poor. This is unacceptable and a violation of international human rights laws.    We call for increased social development action, reaffirming global solidarity and ensuring that no one is left behind. This includes considering the gendered dimension of economic injustice and the need for gender-transformative policies.    We urge States to make concrete and ambitious commitments aimed at ensuring living wages for all workers within their jurisdictions. These commitments must also integrate gender equality, close the gender pay gap, and value paid and unpaid care work.    Living wages are not merely an economic concern, but a fundamental matter of human dignity and rights. They are an essential lever for the eradication of poverty as well as reduction of inequalities, and an essential part of the right to just and favourable conditions of work.    Living wages even serve as a powerful deterrent against contemporary forms of slavery by directly addressing one of its root causes – economic vulnerability.    Living wages play a crucial role in facilitating access to the rights to education, food, housing, development and social security by ensuring that individuals and families have the financial resources necessary to meet their basic needs.    They also contribute to creating a conducive environment for the respect by business of workers’ rights. Living wages advance women’s autonomy and bolster combatting gender-based risks and discrimination.    As required by the international human rights norms and standards, including Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States must close the critical gaps in minimum wage adequacy, enforcement, and coverage. States should guarantee a minimum wage in legislation, corresponding at least to a living wage, indexed on the cost of living.    They should ensure that labor inspectorates are equipped to enforce such legislation and they should extend this protection to informal workers. We also call on business enterprises to provide a living wage to workers across their value chains, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.    http://www.srpoverty.org/2025/04/04/joint-statement-all-states-must-prioritise-adoption-of-a-living-wage-ahead-of-the-second-world-summit-for-social-development/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2025/01/what-is-a-living-wage-and-why-is-it-a-human-rights-issue/ http://www.ituc-csi.org/wages http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2025/02/achieving-global-social-justice/    Paving the Road to the Second World Summit for Social Development. (UNRISD)    The UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) has launched a global consultation process to offer perspectives from different regions, sectors, and demographic groups on shaping more equitable and impactful social development policies.    In November 2025, the United Nations will convene the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) to address ongoing social challenges and renew commitments made in the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action. The second World Social Summit will also catalyze progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by reinvigorating its social pillar grounded in values of social justice, equality and inclusion.    http://www.unrisd.org/en/research/projects/second-world-summit-for-social-development http://www.unrisd.org/en/library/publications/rethinking-social-development-for-a-new-eco-social-contract-an-unrisd-contribution-to-the-second-wor http://www.unrisd.org/en/library/blog-posts/still-reaching-for-the-band-aid-vulnerability-risk-and-the-world-social-summit http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2025/06/second-world-summit-for-social-development-resources/ http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/ http://www.ilo.org/resource/news/trade-unions-urge-renewed-social-contract-anchored-decent-work-and-social http://social.desa.un.org/world-summit-2025/blog http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/05/2025-world-social-summit-must-not-missed-opportunity/    Countless people are struggling to make ends meet while wealth and power is concentrated at the top - World Social Report 2025    Millions of people around the world are living in fear of job loss or struggling to find work, as economic instability, conflict, and climate shocks combine to erode global security, a new UN report has warned.    According to the World Social Report 2025, the sobering sentiment indicates a widespread lack of confidence in the future. Despite people living longer, being better educated and more connected than ever before, many believe that life today is worse than it was 50 years ago.    Close to 60 per cent of people surveyed on life satisfaction reported that they were “struggling” with a further 12 per cent describing themselves as “suffering”, the report notes.    According to the report, economic instability is no longer limited to the world’s poorest regions. Even in high-income countries, rising job uncertainty, gig work and the digital transition are contributing to this trend.    These jobs may offer flexibility but often come at the cost of security and rights – reducing workers to mere service providers in a commodified labour market.    The insecurities are further compounded by an alarming rise in informal employment. In many low and middle-income countries, jobs with no safety net remains the norm, locking workers into cycles of low pay, instability, and zero benefits.    Even those who manage to enter formal employment face significant risks of being pushed back into the informal sector, especially during downturns.    For over 2.8 billion people living on less than $6.85 a day – the threshold for extreme poverty – “even a small shock can send people into extreme poverty and any escapes from poverty are often temporary,” the report warns.    The situation is further complicated by rising climate change impacts and worsening conflicts, further undermining local economies and deepening inequality, especially in the developing world.    As financial pressures mount and stability erodes, public confidence in institutions – and in one another – has also taken a severe hit, particularly among young people.    Over half the world’s population (57 per cent) now expresses low levels of confidence in government. Among those born in the 21st century, trust levels are even lower – raising concerns about long-term civic disengagement and political instability.    People’s trust in one another is also eroding. Fewer than 30 per cent of people in countries with available data believe that most others can be trusted, undermining social cohesion and complicating efforts for collective action.    “The spread of misinformation and disinformation, facilitated by digital technologies, is reinforcing divisions and fuelling distrust,” the report says, warning of abuse and misuse of digital platforms and social media to spread deceit and hate speech, and stoke conflicts.    “Often, users find themselves immersed in virtual and siloed ‘echo chambers’ where they are exposed to news and opinions that align with and may even radicalize their views.”    Platform algorithms facilitate the creation of such echo chambers and reward more extreme content and engagement with higher visibility, the report adds.    To reverse these damaging trends, the report calls for a bold shift in policymaking – one grounded in equity, economic security and solidarity.    It urges governments to invest more in people through expanding access to quality public services – such as education, healthcare, housing and robust social protection systems.    These investments are not discretionary, the report stresses, but essential to promote resilience and inclusive growth.    It also highlights the need to rebuild trust through inclusive and accountable institutions. At the same time, power and wealth needs to become less concentrated at the very top of society.    As momentum builds toward the Second World Summit for Social Development, which will be held in Doha in November, global leadership will be key to driving transformative change.    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the need for unity and decisive action in a foreword to the report.    “The global challenges we face demand collective solutions,” he wrote. “Now more than ever, we must strengthen our resolve to come together and build a world that is more just, secure, resilient and united for each and every one of us.”    http://www.wider.unu.edu/news/world-social-report-2025-sounds-alarm-global-social-crisis http://desapublications.un.org/publications/world-social-report-2025-new-policy-consensus-accelerate-social-progress    People in poverty continue to pay the high price of a debt crisis not of their making.    The international financial system is failing to address the catastrophic debt crisis that is engulfing developing countries and causing misery for hundreds of millions of people, the UN’s poverty expert said today.    “The debt crisis is not just a fiscal issue; it is a full-blown human rights crisis,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.    “In the poorest countries of the world people are struggling to eat, access health services or send their children to school, while their governments shell out billions of dollars to pay back loans to wealthy creditors.    “Making a bad situation worse, countries with the highest levels of debt also tend to be those most vulnerable to climate change, but are being forced to prioritise debt repayments over addressing the severe consequences of the climate crisis.”    The expert warned that rocketing interest rates since the Covid-19 pandemic were sinking countries in the Global South further into debt.    In 2023, a record 54 developing countries allocated 10% or more of government revenue to paying off the interest on their debt, leaving “little room for countries to spend on poverty-busting public services such as education or social protection”. 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on either education or health. Interest rates demanded from developing countries are also much higher than those paid by rich countries. African countries borrow money at almost four times the rate paid by the United States, despite the astronomical level of US debt.    “This perverse scenario has been playing out in the Global South for years, accelerating the freefall into poverty seen since the pandemic,” De Schutter said.    “Creditors have responded too little, too late. The G20’s ‘Common Framework’, agreed in 2020 to bring international financing institutions (IFIs), individual states and private lenders together to speed up debt restructuring, is simply not working.”    De Schutter called for immediate debt relief for countries in crisis and urgent reform of the international financial system to align with human rights.    “Banks and hedge funds have become huge players in the world of sovereign debt and should not be exempt from their human rights responsibilities. It is abhorrent that debt repayments to the world’s richest corporations are being paid at the expense of children’s education or healthcare. Governments must introduce legislation to compel private creditors under their jurisdiction to participate in debt relief for low income countries.    “Comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture, as advocated by the recently agreed Pact of the Future, is also needed. The current system within the IFIs, characterised by unequal representation between high and low-income countries, unfavourable lending conditions, and unfair debt restructuring is trapping too many countries in a cycle of poverty.”    The Special Rapporteur lamented the conditions attached to bailout packages from IFIs which, with their demands for austerity measures, sale of state assets and, at times, surcharges already denounced by UN human rights experts, make it near impossible for states to comply with their human rights obligations and lock countries into unsustainable growth patterns that have only worsened poverty and inequality.    “With Pakistan recently agreeing to its 24th bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which hinged on the country accepting what the Prime Minister called ‘conditions beyond imagination’, it is clear that people in poverty will continue to pay the high price of a debt crisis that is not of their making,” the expert said.    “The solution to the debt crisis is neither to stimulate economic growth at all costs, nor to impose austerity policies. It is to cancel or restructure debt, and to focus on public investment, particularly in social protection, that will restore the prospect of long-term prosperity.”    Global financial architecture needs urgent reform to uphold equality and human rights    The global financial system must be rebuilt on the principles of equality, solidarity, and human dignity that underpin the United Nations Charter, a UN expert told the UN General Assembly.    The Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, George Katrougalos, presented his report to Member States, calling for bold and comprehensive reforms to create a fairer and more inclusive financial architecture.    The expert underlined that the current system continues to reflect the disproportionate influence of the global North. Katrougalos said that the report is not about assigning blame but about promoting reforms for fairer and more inclusive global financial governance, through open and forward-looking dialogue.    “Although international financial institutions claim neutrality, their policies prioritise market liberalisation, deregulation, and fiscal discipline over social equity,” he noted.    “They directly affect how much a country can invest in education, health, and social protection, and how it can respond to crises while maintaining its dignity and independence,” the expert said, warning that austerity and structural adjustment policies have often weakened labour protections, curtailed access to public services, and eroded democratic participation.    The expert underscored that economic policy cannot be treated as neutral or detached from human rights obligations. Financial institutions, as specialised intergovernmental organisations, are bound by the UN Charter and international law, including universal human rights treaties.    Yet, despite frequent references to human rights, climate action, or social inclusion in policy statements, these commitments rarely result in binding measures or transparent accountability.    He noted that, in 2023, developing countries transferred an estimated US$ 263 billion to the wealthiest 1 percent in the global North, while many low- and middle-income countries devoted nearly half of their national budgets to servicing external debt.    The report calls for a realignment of the Bretton Woods institutions around democratised governance, stronger accountability, and the integration of human rights into all aspects of financial decision-making. It urges the General Assembly to seek an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legal obligations of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to respect fundamental human rights.    Katrougalos said reform is both urgent and possible. “A democratic and equitable international order is not merely an aspiration but an obligation,” he said. “Only by placing people before profit and dignity before debt can we build a fairer, more sustainable global economy.”    http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/global-financial-architecture-needs-urgent-reform-uphold-equality-and-human http://www.srpoverty.org/2024/10/17/statement-international-financial-system-not-fit-for-purpose-to-address-catastrophic-debt-crisis-un-poverty-expert/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a79142-report-independent-expert-effects-foreign-debt-and-other-related http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/ie-foreign-debt/annual-thematic-reports http://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/overlooking-nature-is-no-longer-an-option-for-fiscal-policy-and-debt-sustainability-analyses http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2025/02/asg-brands-kehris-current-international-debt-architecture-unfair    http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/fair-and-effective-tax-policies-needed-advance-economic-social-and-cultural http://www.cesr.org/leading-voices-call-for-a-new-development-human-rights-centered-approach-to-sovereign-debt-at-paper-series-launch/ http://iej.org.za/category/resourcing-for-rights-realisation/resourcing-for-rights-realisation_debt-justice/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/01/developing-countries-choked-debt-year-breaking-free/ http://debtjustice.org.uk/press-release/lower-income-country-debt-payments-hit-highest-level-in-30-years http://debtjustice.org.uk/news http://cafod.org.uk/campaign/the-new-debt-crisis http://tinyurl.com/y45jmkdd http://www.eurodad.org/g20_imf_world_bank_fail_debt_crisis    12 Oct. 2025    Urgent calls for debt relief as study shows health and education cuts in developing world    Top economists are demanding urgent action on debt relief in Washington this week, as analysis from the campaign group Debt Justice shows struggling governments are cutting back on health and education.    As finance ministers and central bankers gather for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings, influential experts including the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and leading economists Mariana Mazzucato and Jayati Ghosh, are urging them to “turn debt into hope”.    They are calling for the urgent replenishment of the IMF and World Bank’s debt relief funds, and changes to the way the institutions work, to ensure more countries can receive debt cancellation.    “Bold action on debt means more children in classrooms, more nurses in hospitals, more action on climate change, more jobs, more trade, and less need for aid,” they say in a letter to global policymakers published this week.    The signatories, who have been involved in producing important recent reports on debt relief, including for the UN secretary general and the pope, said African governments spend an average of 17% of their revenues on servicing debts.    “A cap of 10% in 21 countries could unlock enough money to provide clean water and sanitation to roughly 10 million people, as well as avert at least 23,000 under-5 deaths each year,” they argue.    Other signatories to the letter include the former South African finance minister Trevor Manuel, and former Italian prime minister Paulo Gentiloni.    Analysis by the UK-based Debt Justice shows declining health and education spending in countries whose debts the IMF considers to be “sustainable”.    Debt Justice looked at a group of 11 countries, including Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Kenya and Pakistan, which have long-term IMF programmes, and where the Washington-based lender classifies them as at risk of not being able to repay – but that do not qualify for debt relief.    The research finds that over the course of their IMF programmes, health spending per person in this group of countries has been cut by 18% on average in real terms with education spending reduced by 10%.    Heidi Chow, the executive director of Debt Justice, said: “By denying debt relief for countries that need it, the IMF is acting as a debt collector for rich and powerful creditors, while harming millions of people in debtor countries. Forcing countries to pay debts in full is leading to deepening crises in health, education and vital public services.”    Debt Justice is calling on the IMF to review how it decides when countries are entitled to debt relief, and assess the impact of spending cuts on development goals.    http://debtjustice.org.uk/press-release/imf-denials-of-debt-relief-triggering-drastic-health-and-education-spending-cuts-in-lower-income-countries http://data.one.org/2025-debt-open-letter    June 2025 (Columbia University-Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Caritas)    A new report by world-leading experts on debt and development calls for urgent action and systemic reforms to tackle the escalating debt and development crises affecting billions worldwide.    “The Jubilee Report: A Blueprint for Tackling the Debt and Development Crises and Creating the Financial Foundations for a Sustainable People-Centered Global Economy,” is authored by Pope Francis’ Jubilee Commission — a group of over 30 leading global experts led by Nobel laureate and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs Professor Martín Guzman.    The report follows Pope Francis’ repeated calls for global debt relief, which are now being carried forward by Pope Leo XIV, and brings together for the first time a combination of sound economic expertise with the moral responsibility to act.    The report powerfully shows that the debt crisis plaguing our global financial system is also fueling a development crisis. Fifty-four developing countries now spend 10% or more of their tax revenues just on interest payments.    Across the developing world, average interest burdens have nearly doubled in the past decade. This diverts resources away from essential investments in health, education, infrastructure, and climate resilience -depriving millions of life-saving care, nutrition and employment. This does not have to be the case: Solutions exist that are both economically sound and beneficial to all.    As global market uncertainty grows and refinancing options diminish for debt-distressed nations, this report charts a bold and practical path forward, arguing that, through shared responsibility we can avoid a lost decade for development and climate action and instead support economic recovery and long-term development.    The report presents a moral and practical vision: that global finance should serve people and the planet — not punish the poor to protect profits.    http://ipdcolumbia.org/publication/jubilee-debt-development-blueprint/ http://www.caritas.org/2025/06/why-the-jubilee-report-calls-for-a-rethink-of-global-debt/ http://www.caritas.org/2025/07/church-groups-say-more-action-needed-on-global-debt-crisis/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/private-profit-public-power-financing-development-not-oligarchy    June 2025    United Nations Secretary-General launches report to break “the cycle of debt distress”. (UN News)    The United Nations Secretary-General has presented new recommendations–Confronting the Debt Crisis: 11 Actions to Unlock Sustainable Financing–that aim to break the cycle of debt distress and lay the foundation for unlocking long-term, affordable financing that supports sustainable development.    With two-thirds of low-income countries now at high risk of—or already in—debt distress, the report highlights a growing crisis: soaring debt service costs are crowding out vital investments in education, health, and climate resilience.    “The current global debt system is unsustainable, unfair and unaffordable, with many governments spending more on debt payments than on essentials like health and education combined,” said the Secretary-General. “These 11 immediately actionable proposals can help resolve the debt crisis, empower borrower countries, and create a fairer system.”    Prepared by the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group on Debt, the report reinforces the commitments put forward in the FfD4 Outcome Document and makes the case that an end to the debt crisis is entirely feasible—if opportunities are seized.    http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2025/06/ffd4-press-release-sg-report-2025 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1165051 http://unctad.org/publication/world-of-debt http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/ie-foreign-debt/annual-thematic-reports    Mar. 2025    Debt crisis threatens progress in the response to AIDS    The significant health progress made over the past decade in Central, Eastern, Southern and West Africa—where many countries were on track to ending their AIDS epidemics—is now at risk of being reversed due to inadequate financing. One of the major causes of the funding shortfall is rising debts.    In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic halted economies and overwhelmed emergency rooms, many African countries borrowed from creditors to provide emergency services to their citizens. But four years later, the terms of those loans are forcing governments to make debt payments at the expense of health and other social services. Nearly two thirds of people living with HIV reside in countries that have not received significant debt relief post-Covid.    In West and Central Africa, debt to GDP ratios increased by 9 percent between 2018 and 2023. Countries such as Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone have seen significant rises in their debt burden, now reaching at least 15% of GDP.    In East and Southern Africa, the situation is even more dire: in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, governments spend over 50 percent of their tax revenues on debt servicing. Many of these debts are from external private creditors seeking unreasonable profits – for example, one creditor in Zambia would make a 110 percent profit if the country paid back its debts. (As context, even highly profitable companies like Apple do not have profits that surpass 48 percent.)    Despite Zambia successfully reaching a debt restructuring deal with official creditors, effectively getting some debt relief last year, it’s still slated to pay two-thirds of its budget towards debts over the next two years largely due to not yet reaching a deal with private-creditors. On the ground, crises are already proliferating; hospitals lack essential medicines and equipment. Labor unions and health activists have rallied across Lusaka demanding debt cancellation.    “Countries are facing life and death decisions,” said Charles Birungi, who leads UNAIDS’ work on macroeconomic and fiscal policy. “Do I pay for hospitals, medicines and education – or do I pay my debt? What if paying my debt means that my hospitals go without drugs?”    Two recent UNAIDS reports focusing on Eastern and Southern Africa and on Western and Central Africa outline that the future of funding for the HIV response in many African countries, as well as broader health and social welfare, rests on innovative measures to ensure governments can invest their own tax revenue for citizens.    “Progress is being made in the fight against HIV in both regions,” said one of the report authors and development finance specialist Gail Hurley. “Of course there were setbacks, including those related to Covid-19, but external funding and strong political commitment has provided a solid foundation to build on. Countries now need partial or even whole scale debt relief in order to achieve global health goals.”    Debt relief is especially critical for countries that want to move away from relying on international donors to finance their HIV responses. In East and Southern Africa, for instance, most HIV financing comes from two donors: the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (which is also heavily supported by the US government). But without debt relief, countries cannot invest tax revenue in health systems.    Based on extensive consultation with economists and policy experts, UNAIDS has called for lenders and international institutions to re-negotiate debt payments to comprise at least less than 15 percent of respective countries’ annual budgets. Such a policy for the heavily indebted countries of Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe would free up $41 billion a year for health, education and social welfare. The strategy has a precedent: the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, launched in 1996 by the IMF and World Bank, aimed to ensure that states did not struggle under an unmanageable debt burden. It took a similar approach and relieved 37 countries of more than $100 billion in debt.    UNAIDS also recommends that governments increase tax revenue through measures like raising the income tax of the ultra-wealthy, wealth taxes, reducing tax exemptions and clamping down on tax-dodging. Amnesty International estimates that Zambia, for example, loses over USD 4.5 billion annually through tax evasion and tax avoidance.    Another option not included in the reports but recommended by UNAIDS’s partner WHO is a ‘health tax’ on products that lead to or exacerbate health issues, including sugary beverages, tobacco and alcohol. In 2023, WHO called on all countries to increase taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks (and has previously suggested taxes on tobacco). These monies could then be re-invested in health systems.    But UNAIDS cautions that even raising tax revenue will not be enough to address funding gaps unless it goes hand in hand with debt reduction. Without swift changes to enable African governments to invest in health, Birungi fears what the future could hold. “What happens if we wake up tomorrow and the donors are gone?” he asked. “Will we go back to the 80s and 90s when people were dying in massive numbers?”    http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2025/march/20250320_debt-crisis http://www.un.org/ohrlls/content/opinion-piecesop-eds/building-resilience-least-developed-countries-pathway-sustainable-transformation http://www.srpoverty.org/2025/01/17/financing-social-protection-floors-contribution-of-the-special-rapporteur-to-ffd4/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/human-cost-public-sector-cuts-africa-april-2025 http://actionaid.org/publications/2025/human-cost-public-cuts-africa    Sep. 2025    Stand with Billions, Not Billionaires. Change the System. (Economic Justice Mobilisation)    We live in a critical moment in history. Humanity is confronted with massive economic and climate injustice, because the system is rigged — and we are all paying the price. This unjust economic system advantages rich countries to the detriment of poorer nations, fossil fuels over clean energy, and billionaire oligarchs over everyone else.    The super-rich and large corporations control the media, manipulate politicians and dodge taxes — increasing their political power and trapping billions of people in poverty.    While billionaires, big corporations and rich nations hoard wealth and power, climate disasters and crushing debt push billions deeper into poverty. The richest 1% pollute more than the poorest 66%, yet vulnerable communities bear the devastation — with floods, fires, and storms wiping out lives and livelihoods. The wealthiest countries owe an enormous debt for this damage, which impacts women, youth and marginalised groups the hardest.    At the same time, nearly one in three countries face a catastrophic debt crisis — the biggest in a generation. Instead of funding healthcare and schools, low-income countries are forced to pay billions to wealthy creditors, at crushing interest rates, while institutions like the IMF and World Bank impose brutal austerity. When public services fail, women and girls bear the heaviest burden, as they perform the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work.    At the heart of this injustice is an outdated global financial system that fuels inequality and the climate crisis. We must fight back — and there is a better way.    2025 is a Jubilee Year — a rare opportunity to cancel debts and start afresh. Let’s create a new financial system to prevent future debt crises, end austerity, create a progressive tax system and tackle climate change. We pledge to stand together and make our values and demands visible everywhere, so that every government feels the urgent pressure to act.    Here’s what we’re fighting for:    Cancel the Debt: End the debt crisis today by canceling unsustainable and illegitimate debts — no strings attached — and requiring rich countries to pay their climate debts to support communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.    Change the System: Transform the outdated, rigged financial system with a fair, democratic and transparent one under the United Nations — including a binding debt framework and international tax convention. Everyone deserves a voice in shaping the future, not just a few billionaires.    Choose Hope and Justice: Debt cancellation cannot be done in isolation. To build just economies we must (a) tax the super-rich and large corporations to curb inequality, (b) guarantee public services including health care, education, and social protection for all, and (c) accelerate a just transition for people and planet, including a fair, equitable and timebound transition away from fossil fuels as well as the protection of biodiversity and community livelihoods.    But the clock is ticking. With only five years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, we're failing. At this rate, ending poverty will take 230 years—but the world's first trillionaire could emerge in less than a decade.    This is not a time to be defined by tyranny, oligarchy, exploitation, and greed. Instead, we are defined by our courage to fight for justice, our solidarity and a determination to build a just and equitable world. We can rewrite the rules. We can change the system. We choose Hope and Justice — for Billions, Not Billionaires.    * 1071 civil society organisations from 115 countries have signed the Economic Justice statement: http://economicjustice.global/    Aug. 2025 (Oxfam International)    In reaction to the United Nations’ 2025 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) report launched today, showing only a slight progress in reducing hunger and warning that over half a billion people could be chronically hungry by 2030—nearly 60% of them in Africa — Emily Farr, Oxfam’s Food and Economic Security Lead, said:     “We are witnessing the collapse of a moral contract. While some regions have seen some modest gains, the world is veering dangerously off track, leaving the poorest and more vulnerable behind. As top donors, including the G7, push through a historic 28% cut to aid by 2026, 2.6 billion people —over a third of humanity —still cannot afford a healthy diet. These are not just statistics. These are lives unravelling and futures stolen.    “This is not a crisis of scarcity — it is a crisis of inequality. Climate chaos, conflict unchecked, and broken policies—driven by greed and impunity—are tearing apart global food systems and entrenching inequality.    In 2024 alone, billionaires’ wealth soared by $2 trillion while poverty barely budged. Since 2015, the world’s richest 1% have amassed $33.9 trillion — enough to end global poverty 22 times over. Yet hunger persists, not by accident, but by design. As fields flood and crops wither, aid is slashed, and a few corporate giants profit from the wreckage.    Low-income countries are paying the highest price for a crisis they did not create. While global food price inflation peaked at 13.6 percent, it soared to 30 percent in the poorest economies— wiping out household budgets and access to food.    In Africa, 1 in 5 people remain chronically hungry, with women and children hit hardest by deep cuts in nutrition programs.    “We cannot afford a global food system built on injustice and indifference. Despite a modest improvement, we are nowhere the pace needed to meet global goals. The tide can still be turned, but only if governments act with urgency and unity: restore gutted aid, crack down on food profiteers, and invest in local farmers and local food systems that feed people, not profit margins.”    http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/oxfam-reaction-sofi-2025-rep    July 2025    A Tax Victory for Multinationals Over People, by Joseph E. Stiglitz , José Antonio Ocampo, and Jayati Ghosh for the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation. (Project Syndicate)    Once again, G7 governments have decided to put the interests of multinationals ahead of the interests of developing countries, small and medium-size businesses, and their own citizens, this time by exempting US multinationals from the global minimum corporate tax agreed in 2021. The US must not be allowed to dictate global policy.    The US Treasury just made a deal with the other G7 countries that global minimum taxes that were already agreed upon will not apply to American companies. The G7 governments caved under intense pressure from President Donald Trump and lobbying from multinationals in Washington, London, Brussels, and beyond – just as India, and now, sadly, Canada have caved on digital taxation.    Years ago, the international community recognized that too many global companies were not paying their fair share of taxes, and some weren’t paying taxes to the country where the economic activity actually occurs. The complex agreement that emerged in 2021 at the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting comprised two pillars; only Pillar Two, a global minimum corporate tax, has been adopted. (The other pillar allocated taxation rights among countries and spurred opposition from both developing countries and the US.)    While there has been a global consensus on the need for such a minimum, the version the United States adopted during Trump’s first presidential term was different, and weaker, than that of the rest of the world, allowing multinationals to “make up” for what they didn’t pay in tax havens with the “extra” they paid in the US or other high-tax jurisdictions. While far from perfect, Pillar Two was a first attempt to ensure a minimum tax rate of 15% on the profits of multinationals everywhere, a crucial step to end harmful tax competition between countries.    There were, of course, some carve-outs and exemptions, which lowered the effective rate somewhat below 15%. And the 15% rate was already lower than the rate imposed by many developing countries; it should have been higher, and the carve-outs smaller. Still, the Pillar Two deal halted the race to the bottom, whereby countries offered lower tax rates to attract businesses to their jurisdictions. For the world as a whole, this race didn’t generate much new investment; the real winners were the rich corporations who pocketed the savings from paying almost no taxes at all in some countries.    But once again, G7 governments have decided to put multinationals’ interests ahead of the interests of developing countries, small and medium-size businesses (which can’t avail themselves of the shenanigans that multinationals have found so profitable), and their own citizens – who, as a consequence, will pay higher taxes.    By exempting US multinationals from Pillar Two, this deal will allow some to continue to benefit from zero or near-zero taxes on profits they book in low-tax jurisdictions or tax havens such as Puerto Rico and the Cayman Islands. This will make them more competitive than non-US multinationals.    Because modern multinational corporations are willing to move their nominal headquarters to wherever they get the most favorable tax treatment (and other goodies), with the real economic activity occurring elsewhere, giving US companies preferential treatment incentivizes companies to move their official headquarters to the US. This is another sad example of a race to the bottom.    By acceding to US demands, the G7 deal risks undermining the worldwide implementation of the minimum tax. It also makes a mockery of the inclusiveness of the so-called OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework.    There was a pretense that the new global framework was crafted by more than 140 countries working together. To be sure, many developing countries complained this was an unfair agreement for them and that powerful countries did not listen to their concerns. Now that façade has crumbled. The non-G7 countries, including dozens of emerging markets and developing countries, are now being asked to rubber-stamp a decision imposed on them by just one country.    Pillar Two should be strengthened, not gutted. It currently applies only to large multinationals (with a global turnover at or above €750 million), and the global minimum tax rate of 15% is set very low. The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation has always advocated a minimum rate of at least 25%.    According to some estimates, Pillar Two’s minimum tax would have yielded between $155 and $192 billion annually in additional global corporate income tax revenue. While this is a significant amount, a minimum rate of 25% could generate more than $500 billion a year in additional revenue. In a world facing converging crises of inequality, climate change, and underfunded public services, leaving such substantial resources on the table is fiscally irresponsible and morally indefensible.    Pillar Two represented a starting point – a global floor on corporate taxation that could have curbed the race to the bottom and restored some degree of tax justice. The G7’s decision to let US multinationals off the hook weakens even that modest floor and sends the wrong message to the rest of the world.    Just two weeks ago at the United Nations, there was a global consensus about the need to strengthen international tax cooperation and to implement progressive tax systems, and a large majority of countries voted for and support ongoing negotiations toward a UN framework convention on international tax cooperation.    But the US government recently walked away from the UN negotiations, stating that the goals of the proposed UN convention “are inconsistent with US priorities and represent an unwelcome overreach.” In the adoption of the “Compromiso de Sevilla,” the outcome document of this week’s UN Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), the US was the only major country that was absent.    Allowing the US to bypass the already modest Pillar Two rules not only undermines multilateralism; it also flies in the face of the commitments that have been made, and further deepens the inequity in global tax governance.    The members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework should reject the deal made at the G7. The US must not be allowed to dictate global policy. It is powerful, but still represents less than 20% of global GDP. Countries meeting in Seville for FfD4 can either accept the US undermining every effort to ensure multinationals pay their fair share, or redouble efforts to create a new international tax system at the UN that works for all. For the sake of the world economy and people everywhere, they should do the latter.    * Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics is a University Professor at Columbia University, and Co-Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation. Jose Antonio Ocampo, a former United Nations under-secretary-general is a professor at Columbia University, and a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation; Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is Co-Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation.    http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/g7-caved-to-us-on-global-minimum-corporate-tax-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-et-al-2025-06 http://www.icrict.com/corporate-taxation/countries-must-stand-up-against-trump-bullying/ http://www.icrict.com/corporate-taxation/the-compromiso-de-sevilla-a-hope-for-tax-justice-now-governments-must-deliver/    Mar. 2025    The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has called on States parties to design and implement their tax policies to promote economic, social and cultural rights and reduce high levels of inequality.    In a statement issued today, the Committee, emphasized that sound fiscal policies, including both the mobilization of sufficient resources and adequate social spending, are essential to realize economic, social and cultural rights.    “Taxation is a key instrument for mobilizing resources to implement economic, social and cultural rights and to address poverty and socio-economic inequalities.”    At domestic level, the Committee identified situations where regressive ineffective tax policies hamper the capacity of States parties to fulfil economic, social and cultural rights. “One such example is a tax policy that maintains low personal and corporate income taxes without adequately addressing high income inequalities.”    It also highlighted the negative impacts of consumption taxes such as value-added tax (VAT). “VAT can have adverse impacts on disadvantaged groups such as low-income families and single parent households, who typically spend a higher percentage of their income on everyday goods and services.”    The Committee called on governments to shift towards more equitable tax structures, from relying on indirect taxes to a more direct income taxation approach, to ensure that high-income and wealth groups and large corporations contribute their fair share to national revenue.    A well-designed tax system, the Committee observed, should not only generate sufficient public revenue but also serve as a tool for reducing socio-economic inequalities.    It called for comprehensive assessments of the impact of existing and proposed tax policies through transparent, evidence-based processes, ensuring that taxation fosters rather than hinders economic, social and cultural rights.    These assessments shall include the overall distributional impact and the tax burden on different income groups, women, and other disadvantaged groups, and the benefits and impact of various tax exemptions, including those related to natural resources.    At the international level, the Committee welcomed General Assembly Resolution 78/230, which lays the groundwork for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to improve international coordination in tackling tax evasion, illicit financial flows, and corporate profit-shifting.    “Low effective corporate tax rates, wasteful tax incentives, lax regulation of illicit financial flows, tax evasion and tax avoidance, and the permitting of tax havens and financial secrecy drive a race to the bottom, depriving other countries of significant resources for public services on health, education, housing, and for social security and environmental policies.”    The Committee underscored the duty of States to regulate financial institutions and corporate entities within their jurisdiction to prevent tax abuse.    “States parties should take all measures to combat illicit financial flows by business enterprises operating within or domiciled in their territory, including through the adoption and enforcement of mandatory due diligence mechanisms.”    It further called for stronger international cooperation to build an inclusive, fair and effective global tax governance, including measures to enhance financial transparency, eliminate tax havens, and implement a globally coordinated minimum corporate tax rate.    “Aligning tax cooperation with the obligations under the Covenant can contribute to the effective mobilization of resources and redistribution of wealth, thereby addressing high levels of inequalities and facilitating substantial investments in the institutions, public services and programs essential for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights for all,” the Committee said.    http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/fair-and-effective-tax-policies-needed-advance-economic-social-and-cultural http://www.cesr.org/states-adopt-un-resolution-to-further-rights-enabling-economic-policies/    May 2025    Convergence alone won’t fix global inequality by 2050 without ambitious redistribution. (World Inequality Database)    What will global income inequality look like in 2050? Will the economic catch-up of developing countries lead to a more equitable world? Or will the rise of top incomes maintain or even exacerbate today’s high levels of inequality? What measures can governments implement to influence future global inequality dynamics?    In a new study, Philipp Bothe, Lucas Chancel, Amory Gethin and Cornelia Mohren address these questions leveraging on a new dataset that includes WID distributional data, UN projections and climate change projections through 2050. They outline diverging pathways for the future of global income inequality horizon 2050.    Key Findings:    In a business-as-usual scenario, overall global income inequality will remain largely unchanged in 2050 compared to today. Without significant changes to current redistribution policies, rising within-country inequality will continue disproportionately benefit the global top 1% who will continue to receive 17% of worldwide income. Meanwhile, rapid growth in developing countries will only slightly increase the average income of the world’s poorest 50%, with their share rising from 10% to 12%.    Progressive “post-tax redistribution” policies, in the form of taxation and cash transfers at a country level, are important but will most likely have a limited impact on the global income distribution on their own.    On the other hand, “pre-tax redistribution”, through measures reshaping the distribution of labor and capital income (e.g. increased government spending on public education and health, and minimum wage policies), will play an essential role in reshaping future inequality.    If all countries aligned both their pre-tax inequality and post-tax redistribution policies with those of the most progressive country in their region, the global bottom 50% income share could double by 2050, reaching nearly 20%. Such policy convergence could be sufficient to offset the effect of four decades of rising within-country inequality.    Climate change is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities further. In a high climate impact scenario, the bottom 50% of the world population could see their income share fall to levels not seen since 1980. This group stands to bear the brunt of climate-related shocks, absorbing nearly three-quarters of total relative income losses.    http://wid.world/news-article/global-inequality-by-2050-convergence-redistribution-and-climate-change/ http://wid.world/news-article/new-version-of-the-global-wealth-tax-simulator-released-at-international-taxing-billionaires-conference/ http://wid.world/world-wealth-tax-simulator/ http://wid.world/news-article/thomas-pikettys-view-on-billionaire-taxation-and-wealth-redistribution http://wid.world/news-article/unequal-exchange-and-north-south-relations/ http://inequalitylab.world/en http://www.taxobservatory.eu/joint-press-release-conclusion-of-the-international-conference-on-taxing-billionaires/    A Two Tier World. It’s never been a better time to be a billionaire - Oxfam International, LSE, agencies    People living in poverty all over the world continue to face multiple crises. The scars of the pandemic are still with us in the form of unpayable debts, lower wages and far higher food prices, making day-to-day life a struggle for billions of people.    Conflict is also increasing, which drives further poverty, hunger and inequality. The huge human impact of climate breakdown grows each year with deaths from excessive heat, extreme weather and hunger.    In its most recent report on poverty, the World Bank calculates that if current growth rates continue and inequality does not decrease, it will take more than a century to end poverty. Conversely, the report shows that if we reduce inequality, poverty could be ended three times faster.    While overall poverty rates have fallen across the world, the number of people living under the World Bank poverty line of US$6.85 (PPP) today is the same as it was in 1990: almost 3.6 billion people. Today this represents 44% of humanity.    Meanwhile, in perverse symmetry, the richest 1% own almost an identical proportion – 45% of all wealth. One in ten women in the world lives in extreme poverty (below US$2.15 a day PPP); 24.3 million more women than men live in extreme poverty.    Oxfam and Development Finance International’s findings in The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2024 reveal negative trends in the vast majority of countries since 2022.    Four in five have cut the share of their budgets going to education, health and/or social protection; four in five have cut progressive taxation; and nine in ten have regressed on labour rights and minimum wages. Without urgent policy actions to reverse this worrying trend, economic inequality will almost certainly continue to rise in 90% of countries.    Countries are facing bankruptcy and being crippled by debt; they do not have the money to fund the fight against inequality. On average, low- and middle-income countries spend 48% of their budgets on debt repayments, often to rich private creditors based in New York and London. This is far more than their spending on education and health combined.    Each day, women contribute an estimated 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work, adding at least US$10.8 trillion in value to the global economy; the economic contribution of their care work is three times the financial value of the global tech industry.    This extremely high level of inequality is driving suffering worldwide, and undermining progress in bringing an end to poverty.    Billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion in 2024 alone, equivalent to roughly $5.7 billion a day, at a rate three times faster than the year before. An average of nearly four new billionaires were minted every week.    In 2024, the number of billionaires rose to 2,769, up from 2,565 in 2023. Their combined wealth surged from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in just 12 months. This is the second largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since records began.    This ever-growing concentration of wealth is enabled by a monopolistic concentration of power, with billionaires increasingly exerting influence over Governments', industries and public opinion.    Oxfam publishes “Takers Not Makers” as business elites gather in the Swiss resort town of Davos and billionaire Donald Trump, backed by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, is inaugurated as President of the United States.    “The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable”, said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.    “We present this report as a stark wake up-call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few,” said Behar.    Vast sums of money still flow from the Global South to countries in the Global North and their richest citizens, in what Oxfam’s report describes as modern-day colonialism. The history of empire, racism and exploitation has left a lasting legacy of inequality.    Today, the average life expectancy of Africans is still more than 15 years shorter than that of Europeans. Research shows that wages in the Global South are 87 to 95 percent lower than wages in the Global North for work of equal skill. Despite contributing 90 percent of the labor that drives the global economy, workers in low and middle-income countries receive only 21 percent of global income.    “The ultra-rich like to tell us that getting rich takes skill, grit and hard work. But the truth is most wealth is taken, not made. So many of the so-called ‘self-made’ are actually heirs to vast fortunes, handed down through generations of unearned privilege. Untaxed billions of dollars in inheritance is an affront to fairness, where wealth and power stays locked in the hands of a few,” said Behar.    “Meanwhile, the money desperately needed in every country to invest in teachers, buy medicines and create good jobs is being siphoned off to the bank accounts of the super-rich. This is not just bad for the economy —it’s bad for humanity."    Much of the wealth of the ultra-rich is not about what you know, but who you know: who you lobby, whose campaign you finance or which person you bribe. In short, much extreme wealth is the product of crony connections between the rich and governments.    As monopolies tighten their stranglehold on industries, billionaires are seeing their wealth skyrocket to unprecedented levels. Monopoly power is escalating extreme wealth and inequality worldwide. Monopolistic corporations can control markets, set the rules and terms of exchange with other companies and workers, and set higher prices without losing business. These strategies drive up the wealth of their billionaire owners.    Profound inequality between the richest and the rest of society, both between rich nations and the Global South and within countries in the Global South, is the legacy of historical colonialism. The gap between the rich world and the rest is incredibly wide. In 1820, the furthest back the data goes, the income of the global richest 10% was 18 times higher than the poorest 50%; in 2020, it was 38 times higher. This economic inequality is reflected in many other measures of progress and wellbeing.    At the national level too, colonialism bequeathed very high levels of inequality in the countries of the Global South. Today, all the countries, bar one, that the World Bank defines as having high inequality are in the Global South. The richest 1% in Africa, Asia and the Middle East receive 20% of all income.    The modern multinational corporation is a creation of colonialism. It was pioneered by such corporations as the East India Company, which became a law unto itself and was responsible for many colonial crimes. In the modern day, multinational corporations, often occupying monopoly or near-monopoly positions, continue to exploit workers in the Global South.    Global supply chains and export processing industries represent modern colonial systems of south–north wealth extraction. Workers in these supply chains frequently experience poor working conditions, a lack of collective bargaining rights, and minimal social protection.    Large multinational corporations dominate global supply chains, benefitting from cheap labour and the continued extraction of resources from the Global South; they capture the vast majority of profits and perpetuate dependence, exploitation and control through economic means.    To contribute to meaningful systemic change, governments must radically reduce inequality - setting global and national goals to do so.    For example, the incomes of the richest 10% must be no higher than the poorest 40% globally. Government's need time-bound targets to reduce national economic inequality, aiming for the total income of the richest 10% to be no more than the total income of the poorest 40%, known as the Palma Ratio.    The IMF, the World Bank, the UN and other global institutions should completely change their governance to end the formal and informal dominance of the Global North and the interests of their wealthy elites and corporations. The dominance of wealthy nations and corporations over financial markets and trade rules must be ended.    In its place, a new system is needed that promotes economic sovereignty for Global South governments and enables access to fair wages and labour practices for all workers.    Global tax policy should fall under a new UN tax convention and facilitate the payment of higher taxes by the richest people and corporations to radically reduce inequality and end extreme wealth. Tax havens must be abolished.    We need to end the dominance of rich countries and corporations over financial markets and trade rules. This means breaking up monopolies, democratizing patent rules, and regulating corporations to ensure they pay living wages..    http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/takers-not-makers-unjust-poverty-and-unearned-wealth-colonialism http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/billionaire-wealth-surges-2-trillion-2024-three-times-faster-year-while-number http://www.cgdev.org/blog/pens-parade-stratospheric-heights-inequality http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49687-y http://taxthesuperrich.world/news-updates/ http://odi.org/en/insights/think-change-episode-64-how-can-we-fix-a-system-that-fuels-rampant-inequality/ http://wemustdrawtheline.org/ http://neweconomics.org/2025/01/exploring-an-extreme-wealth-line http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/democracy-at-risk-in-davos-new-report-exposes-big-tech-lobbying-and-political-interference/ http://inequality.org/article/what-we-americans-now-need-most-a-farewell-to-grand-fortune/ http://www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/01/09/economic-inequality-seen-as-major-challenge-around-the-world/ http://taxjustice.net/2024/11/20/did-we-really-end-offshore-tax-evasion/    http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/12/10/the-rest-is-not-just-politics-how-inequality-is-trumping-democracy/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/08/28/capitalisms-gaping-inequalities-are-also-its-main-weakness/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/10/08/feeding-the-machine-seven-links-between-ai-and-inequalities/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/05/01/todays-colonial-data-grab-is-deepening-global-inequalities/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/10/02/placing-gender-justice-at-the-heart-of-the-wellbeing-economy/    http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/12/11/global-water-insecurity/ http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/water-dilemmas-the-cascading-impacts-of-water-insecurity-in-a-heating-world-621548/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/03/20/hope-in-the-shadows http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/05/08/its-not-rocket-science-the-politics-of-inequality/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/07/09/to-heal-our-fragmented-economic-system-we-must-look-to-deeper-aspects-of-our-human-nature/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/04/22/uneven-earth-policies-for-a-sustainable-world/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/04/30/new-research-on-global-poverty/    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 a proposal for an internationally coordinated standard ensuring an effective taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals. In the baseline 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.icrict.com/international-tax-reform/g20-must-go-further-in-fig
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item