Over 100 millionaires call for wealth tax to combat inequality

In an unprecedented move, over 100 millionaires and billionaires from nine countries have published an open letter calling for permanent annual wealth taxes on the very richest to help reduce extreme inequality and raise revenue for sustained, long-term increases in public services like healthcare.

The letter, which was published on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by the Patriotic Millionaires in the US and UK, Tax me Now, Oxfam, and Millionaires for Humanity, urges governments to “tax us, the rich, and tax us now.”

According to a comprehensive analysis conducted by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and the Patriotic Millionaires, a progressive wealth tax starting at just 2 percent for millionaires and rising to 5 percent for billionaires could generate a staggering $2.52 trillion annually.

This revenue would be sufficient to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, provide universal healthcare and social protection for all citizens of low- and lower-middle-income countries (3.6 billion people), and make enough vaccines for the entire world.

As the super-rich signatories of this report join the growing global movement calling for greater taxation of the wealthiest members of society, it is clear that record COVID-19 wealth gains at the top of society have only further exacerbated income inequality.

The ten richest men alone have more than doubled their fortunes to a staggering $1.5 trillion dollars, and the world’s 2,660 billionaires now have wealth equivalent to the size of the entire Chinese economy.

Prominent signatories, which include American film producer and heiress Abigail Disney, Danish-Iranian entrepreneur Djaffar Shalchi, American entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer and Austrian student and heiress Marlene Engelhorn, have come together to call for permanent annual wealth taxes on the very richest, in order to reduce extreme inequality and raise revenue for long-term increases in public services like healthcare.

Morris Pearl, former managing director at Blackrock and chairperson of the Patriotic Millionaires, has pointed out that there is no defending a system that endlessly inflates the wealth of the world’s richest people while condemning billions to easily preventable poverty, and that we need deep, systemic change, starting with taxing the rich.

Gemma McGough, British entrepreneur and founder of the Patriotic Millionaires UK, has echoed this sentiment, stating that tax systems the world over have unfairness built-in and that it is time for the wrongs of an unequal world to be righted by taxing the rich.

Oxfam revealed earlier this week that three of Nigeria’s richest men are worth more than 83 million Nigerians. The firm also revealed that the four richest families, previously identified as the Bhimji Depar Shah and Jaswinder Singh Bedi families, as well as the Uhuru family and the family of late Kenyan tycoon Naushad Merali, have a combined wealth of $2.8 billion, which is more than the bottom 40% of Kenya’s poorest 22 million people.