1% of the billionaires of the planet increased its fortune in US$42 billion dollars in ten years but their tax rate is lower than ever. The figure comes from a report by Oxfam released in the run-up to a meeting of the G20 that will discuss a global tax on the rich.
The wealthiest segment of the world’s population “has accumulated $42 trillion of new wealth generated in the last decade”the NGO said in a statement before the opening of the conclave in Rio de Janeiro Brazilof the Finance Ministers of the largest advanced and emerging economies.
The agenda of the two-day meeting includes the proposal of a global tax on super rich, defended by Brazil, Colombia, Spain, France, South Africa and the African Union, but rejected by the United States.
The wealth of the richest 1% of the world’s population grew by US$42 billion
Brazil, which exercises the presidency annual of G20, He established the global tax on billionaires as one of its priorities. The president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva He said on Wednesday that “The super-rich pay proportionally much less tax than the working class.”
His Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, had stated in February that, “despite recent progress, It is unquestionable that the world’s billionaires continue to evade our tax systems through a series of strategies.”
Layla Yakoub, Campaign Manager “Tax justice and inequalities” of Oxfam France, quoted in the statement, stresses that “The dynamics of raising taxes on the ultra-rich are undeniable” and that “this week is the first real test for the G20 governments” on that issue.
But he wonders whether governments will have “the political will to establish a global standard “that prioritizes the needs of the majority over the profit-driven thirst of an elite of minority billionaires.”
The wealth of the top 1% of the population increased by 45% in 40 years
According to the NGO, “The share of income held by the top 1% in G20 countries has increased by 45% over the past four decades, while top tax rates on their income have been cut by about a third.”
“On a global scale, the rate of taxation of billionaires is equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth“, he adds, based on data from the European Union Tax Observatory.
“Their Fortunes have grown by an average of 7.1% annually over the past four decades and an annual net wealth tax of at least 8% would be necessary to reduce the extreme wealth of billionaires,” he said.
Source: Ambito
