A group of rich Germans have launched a petition to call for a wealth tax to help the country bounce back from an economic crisis, because, as one said, he had “a lot of money I do not need.”
The text, posted on the Internet, has been signed by 44 people who want to convince the government of newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel to raise their taxes.
None of the names belongs to Germany’s richest families.
AID NEEDED
But for retired doctor Dieter Kelmkuhl, 66, it is time the wealthy came to the aid of their country.
He reckons that if the 2.2 million Germans who have personal fortunes of more than 500,000 euros (US$750,000) paid a tax of 5 percent this year and next, it would provide the state with 100 billion euros.
Kelmkuhl got the idea when Berlin stumped up billions of euros to save banks and give the recession-hit economy a boost, as the gulf between rich and poor grows wider in Europe’s biggest economy.
“It made me mad to think that we suddenly found all this money for the banks, money that we did not have before for urgent programs like education and the environment,” the left-of-center weekly Die Zeit quoted him as saying.
German UFA
The former doctor would like Germany to have its own version of the US group United for a Fair Economy (UFA), which includes about 700 wealthy US residents, the left-of-center daily Tagesspiegel said.
His plan would see a 5 percent tax for two years to fund specific projects followed by a reduction to 1 percent, the level of the tax when it was abandoned in 1997. Germany still slaps a 25 percent levy on capital gains.
One signer, 69-year-old Peter Vollmer, said he backed the petition because he had inherited “a lot of money I do not need.”
Since her Sept. 27 election victory, Merkel and her Christian Democrats have been locked in talks hammering out a common program with their new partners, the Free Democrats (FDP).
The FDP promised 35 billion euros in tax cuts in its election campaign, but with Germany’s public finances shot to bits by the recession, Merkel’s party is wary of agreeing to such reductions.
On Wednesday, Lehmkuhl, Vollmer and a few friends held a rally in the Tiergarten in central Berlin, throwing fake banknotes into the air for photographers in what they called a bid to provoke discussion of the idea.
“It’s really strange that so few people came,” Vollmer said.
Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights calling for the release of his critics as “blatant interference.” The EU Parliament resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority the day before, called for the release of lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison on Thursday, but remained under judicial supervision. “The European Parliament [resolution] is a blatant interference in our affairs,” Saied said. “They can learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms.” Saied’s condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU’s ambassador for “failing to respect diplomatic rules.” He also
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
RSS