INDIA: Campaigners urge the G20 summit to raise wealth taxes on the world’s wealthy. A letter from nearly 300 millionaires, economists, and politicians urged swift action to prevent extreme wealth from “corroding our collective future.”
The letter, signed by Abigail Disney, Brian Eno, and Richard Curtis, calls for international cooperation similar to ensuring multinational corporations pay minimum tax to agree on a wealth taxation system.
The G20 conference is expected to be largely unanticipated due to divisions among its members. However, proponents of a wealth tax argue that leaders should focus on the general population.
They claim that many recommendations have been made by top economists, and the public desires them. The letter, compiled by Earth 4 All, Millionaires for Humanity, Millionaires for Peace, and Oxfam, suggests that a higher wealth tax would help reduce “dangerous levels of inequality.”
The activists claim that only four cents out of every dollar in tax income comes from wealth taxes, despite the fact that the aggregate wealth of people with assets worth more than $50 million (£40 million) has more than doubled to $11.8 trillion.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stated last week that a future Labour administration would not enact a wealth tax. Jeremy Hunt, the UK chancellor, has no intentions to do so either. Julia Davies, a member of Millionaires UK, emphasizes the importance of international cooperation in taxing extreme wealth in the UK.
The petition, signed by US Senator Bernie Sanders, former UN General Assembly president Maria Espinosa, economists Gabriel Zucman, Jayati Ghosh, Kate Raworth, Joe Stiglitz, Lucas Chancel, and Thomas Piketty, calls for the taxation of the wealthiest individuals to be a more sustainable policy.
The petition suggests that the political parties are more focused on the nation’s race to the bottom than on investing in the welfare of the general populace.
According to the letter, the G20, including the G7 and developing market countries like China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia, should unanimously decide to raise taxes on the wealthy and end tax competitiveness and avoidance by the super-rich.
Oxfam’s head of strategy and advocacy, Katy Chakraborty, stated that the cacophony of voices is becoming too loud for politicians to ignore. Katy remarked that the world is at a crossroads; millionaires and the general population alike demand fairer taxation to solve the expense of living and ecological concerns. She went on to say that countries must act now.
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