Oxfam reported Thursday that the world’s richest one percent have boosted their fortunes by a total of $42 trillion over the last decade, ahead of a G20 summit in Brazil where taxing the super-rich is on the agenda.
“Obscene levels” of inequality, warns NGO
Despite this bonanza, taxes on the wealthy had fallen to “historic lows,” according to the NGO, warning of “obscene levels” of inequality, leaving the rest of the globe “scraping for crumbs.”
Brazil has prioritized international collaboration on taxing the super-rich during its presidency of the G20, a group of countries accounting for 80 percent of global GDP.
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Focus on levying taxes on super-rich in G20 summit in Brazil
At this week’s summit in Rio de Janeiro, the group’s finance ministers are expected to make headway on ways to raise levies on the ultra-wealthy and prevent billionaires from escaping tax systems.
The initiative entails determining methods for taxing billionaires and other high-income earners.
The proposal is set to be severely disputed during the summit on Thursday and Friday, with France, Spain, South Africa, Colombia, and the African Union all in favor but the United States strongly against.
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Oxfam described it as a “real litmus test for G20 governments,” encouraging them to impose an annual net wealth tax of at least 8% on the “extreme wealth” of the super-rich.
“The momentum to increase taxes on the ultra-rich is undeniable,” said Oxfam International’s head of inequality policy, Max Lawson.
$42 trillion nearly 36 times more than the wealth accumulated by poor
According to Oxfam, the $42 trillion amount is about 36 times greater than the wealth of the poorer half of the world’s population.
However, billionaires worldwide contribute less than 0.5 percent of their income in taxes.
Nearly four out of five of the world’s billionaires call a G20 nation home, Oxfam noted.
