cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/7812592

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/7812500

PARIS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Governments should open a new front in the international clampdown on tax evasion with a global minimum tax on billionaires, which could raise $250 billion annually, the EU Tax Observatory said on Monday.

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.

  • Nawor3565@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    1 year ago

    That’s pretty insane, because that’s barely 1/3 of what the USA spends on its military alone every year. I think we can do better than 2%, these people won’t even notice.

    (To be clear though, anything would be better than nothing. The chances of even a measley 2% tax getting passed is slim to none, and those chances get smaller the higher the tax is, so anything we can get is a win.)

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      By the time you could get the Billionaires to “agree” to a 2% wealth tax, you would be in a position to demand basically 100% with progressive taxation of course.

  • shiveyarbles@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    1 year ago

    The whole schtick is taxing the populace and diverting it to the ultra wealthy. That’s the whole plan, everything else is just noise. Why would they (the rich who write the laws) change that, short of a revolution?

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    The fact that anyone can amass that amount of wealth means that far too many people were not paid enough.

    How about this: Tax them as much as it would take for them to experience hardship, just like the rest of us.

    A family making under $75,000 these days is barely able to make ends met, so the tax they experience causes suffering. Yet the way we tax billionaires makes no difference at all to their quality of life. Tax them more. Until they feel it.

  • nonearther@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    “So you’re saying more tax cuts to these billionaires? Done deal” - entire world’s leadership

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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.

    “In our view, this is difficult to justify because it risks to undermine the sustainability of tax systems and the social acceptability of taxation,” the observatory’s director Gabriel Zucman told journalists.

    U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget included plans for a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.01%, but that proposal has since fallen by the wayside with lawmakers in Washington preoccupied with government shutdown threats and looming funding deadlines.

    Though a coordinated international push to tax billionaires could take years, the Observatory pointed to the example of governments’ success in all but ending bank secrecy and reducing opportunities for multinationals to shift profits to low-tax countries.

    The 2018 launch of automatic sharing of account information has reduced the amount of wealth held in offshore tax havens by a factor of three, the observatory estimated.

    For example the rich increasingly park wealth in real estate instead of offshore accounts while companies can exploit loopholes in the 15% corporate tax minimum.


    The original article contains 491 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Belgdore@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    The problem is that money would just be pocketed by the law makers or used to fund war.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Better it goes into government so at least people can vote to change it. If billionaires hold it they will just use it to influence the government and hoard wealth.

      • MenKlash@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Better it goes into government so at least people can vote to change it.

        We can’t change it. Politicians would still have their monopolical powers because they help each other. Don’t trust the government. Billionaires not only influence it, they also receive help from them.