A wealth tax on the world’s richest people could raise at least US$2.52 trillion per year, enough to fund COVID-19 vaccines for everyone and lift billions out of poverty, groups including non-profits and millionaires said yesterday.
The proposal from a network of non-governmental organizations, social movements and pro-tax millionaires followed reports showing that the world’s wealthiest people have grown richer during the now two-year-old COVID-19 pandemic.
“The insane reality is that whilst billions face a daily struggle to survive during this pandemic, billionaire wealth is spiraling out of control. This cannot be right,” Fight Inequality Alliance global convener Jenny Ricks said in a statement.
The tax proposal was made to coincide with a meeting of the World Economic Forum, which is taking place online for the second straight year as its Davos, Switzerland, gathering was postponed due to the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The report by the Fight Inequality Alliance, global charity Oxfam, the US-based Institute for Policy Studies and Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net worth Americans, called for a graduated tax rate on the rich.
The wealth tax would be set at 2 percent for those worth more than US$5 million, 3 percent for more than US$50 million and 5 percent for more than US$1 billion.
This would raise US$2.52 trillion, which could help pull 2.3 billion people out of poverty and produce vaccines for the entire planet.
It would also be enough to provide universal healthcare and social protection to 3.6 billion people in low and middle-income countries, the group said.
A steeper progressive tax, which includes a 10 percent levy on billionaires, would raise US$3.62 trillion a year, the group said, adding that actual levels of taxation would be country specific.
Ricks said that her group chose a lower progressive tax that was on the “realistic side.”
Oxfam said earlier this week that the world’s 10 wealthiest men doubled their fortunes to US$1.5 trillion during the first two years of the pandemic.
In an open letter to Davos participants, more than 100 millionaires — including members of Patriotic Millionaires — said that the current tax system “is not fair.”
“The world — every country in it — must demand the rich pay their fair share,” the letter said. “Tax us, the rich, and tax us now.”
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