By John Ikani
A group of more than 100 billionaires and millionaires have begged to pay more tax in an open letter.
The letter, penned by the Patriotic Millionaires and circulated by groups including Millionaires for Humanity, Tax me Now, and Oxfam, was addressed to the World Economic Forum’s online Davos meeting.
Their appeal came from a study backed by wealthy individuals and nonprofits that found that wealth taxes on the world’s wealthiest people could raise $ 2.52 trillion annually. This is enough to pay everyone a Covid vaccine and save 2.3 billion people from poverty.
In addition to funding vaccines worldwide and alleviating poverty, the tax would be enough to provide universal health care and social protection to 3.6 billion people in low- and middle-income countries, the group said.
The tax would be set at two percent for those worth over $5 million, three percent for over $50 million, and five percent for over $1 billion.
Signatories including Disney heiress Abigail Disney, who has a reported net worth of £88million said the current tax system is unfair and ‘deliberately designed to make the rich richer’.
Other signers include wealthy men and women from the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands and Iran.
What the millionaires and billionaires are saying:
“The world-all the nations in it-must require the rich to pay their fair share,” the letter says. “Tax us the rich and tax us now.”
“As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair,” circulated by a group that includes patriotic millionaires, millionaires for humanity, Tax me Now, and Oxfam. The letter that was made says.
“It can be said that most of us have seen our wealth actually increase during the pandemic, while the world has experienced enormous suffering in the last two years. Fair distribution.”
What you should know:
The Patriotic Millionaires took part in the wealth tax study with a network of non-profits and social movements, including Fight for Inequality Alliance, Oxfam and the US-based Institute for Policy Studies think tank.
Wednesday’s tax proposal was made as global government and business leaders take part in the virtual Davos meeting this week. The in-person gathering was postponed due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
“There is no defending a system that endlessly inflates the wealth of the world’s richest people while condemning billions to easily preventable poverty,” Patriotic Millionaires chairman Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock investment firm managing director, said in a statement.
“We need deep, systemic change, and that starts with taxing rich people like me,” Morris said.
A plan to tax the wealth of some 700 American billionaires was floated by Democrats in the US Congress last year, but it was cut from President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending and climate change programme.
