The Tax Justice Network said trillions could be raised with a ‘featherlight’ tax on the 0.5% of richest households, copying a current Spanish tax
Governments around the world copying Spain’s wealth tax on the super-rich could raise more than $2tn (£1.5tn), according to campaigners calling for the money to help finance the climate transition.
As a growing numbers of countries consider raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy, the Tax Justice Network campaign group said in a report that evidence from a “featherlight” tax on the 0.5% richest households in Spain could help raise trillions of dollars globally each year.
The Spanish government, under the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, introduced a temporary “solidarity” wealth tax in late 2022, which is collected in 2023 and 2024, on the net wealth of individuals exceeding €3m (£2.6m). It is estimated to apply to the richest 0.5% of households.
the rich are ruining every country, every economy except for their own, and the environment. let’s make the rich extinct before they make all of us extinct.
They’re also destroying the entire biosphere
Nah man it’s the bioflat, wake up sheeple!
It would be a good start but then new rich would emerge to take their place. Maybe we should just put “re-enact French revolution” on a 100 year calendar reminder.
No, that is what regulations are for. Monopolies used to be regulated more after they caused the great depression. Been done before can be done again.
I also read they started doing this in some American state and it raised 1.8 billion dollars. If this idea appeals to you, try to find out if there are any petitions in your country that suggest something like this. If you’re from the Netherlands, the SP has a petition like this.
That’s HORRIBLE! We should INSTEAD be Taxing Homeless Mothers to raise that Money INSTEAD!
The rich are going to get to the “find out” stage one way or the other. Do I generally like a wealth tax? No. Do I think it’s needed now because Republicans fucked up our country with repeated tax cuts for the rich over 60 years that we would never otherwise recover from? Yes.
Unfortunately finding a realistic way on how to do it is close to impossible
Why, just tax based on value at a given date. In the Netherlands they tax bank value based on december 31st amounts over a specific value. And your house. They can also do that with portfolios of shares, bonds and other things people can use as collateral.
If you can borrow against a portfolio of shares, we can tax it too.
Make taxes too high and instead of people paying it, they will just move to another country where they don’t have to.
Here is an idea, how about the US uses its military to enforce a minimum wealth tax worldwide to end tax competition, instead of to enable its proxies to commit war crimes.
So you’re proposing that the US tries to go conquer the world. Are you insane?
I’m not in favor of gunboat diplomacy, but if the US is doing it anyway (to enable genocide) I would rather have them do something useful with it.
And using a military to enforce policy does not equal conquering the world, it’s at the end of the escalation ladder, diplomatic pressure then sanctions, embargoes, support regime change, militarily blockades, limiting military operations, and finally full on invasion. These are all things the US is already doing but then for nefarious reasons.
The US used its Military for the past 80 years to prevent anything like this from happening and to “protect” the assets of rich white people
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MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this sourceWealth taxes are rarely efficient and create all sorts of weird and counter productive effects. Better to properly tax income and capital gains.
Examples?
The rich usually ensure that there are enough gigantic exceptions. And these exceptions often aren’t reported upon.
And maybe he believes the trickle down economy bs.
Trickle down is complete BS and the many ways to avoid wealth taxes are part of the problem with them. You need to properly tax income and capital gains and close as many of the loopholes around each as possible. Then add a proper estate tax as well to reduce inter generational wealth
Also require greater transparency around money movement and proper auditing. Governments need to spend more on auditing.
Of the counter-productive effects? I have a bunch of shares in a private company that I was given for good performance and retention. At the latest share price from the latest funding round they’re worth more than enough to put me in the 0.5%. However, they’re not liquid - I can’t sell them unless the company floats or is bought. Under a simple wealth tax I’d have to pay many thousands of pounds of tax on them every year despite them having no realisable value. Just because something is an asset with a nominal value doesn’t mean it’s liquid or generating income. Obviously when (if) I sell the shares I’ll pay capital gains, or if they generate a dividend, income tax.
I’m sure you’ll understand if the rest of us are skeptical of a guy worth $20M arguing against a wealth tax.
I mean, you’re right that restricted shares are a special problem in assessing “wealth,” but that’s why tax laws are complicated and full of loopholes.
I’m in favour of tax and rich folk paying more, but a naive imagining that a simple wealth tax is the answer just isn’t helpful. I’m against wealth taxes because they’re crap taxes - they’re easy to avoid, easy to get caught in by accident if you’re not employing an expensive accountant, and therefore a rubbish way of raising money
That is indeed counter productive for rich people like yourself yes.
I’m not really seeing the problem here.
If the shares can be owned by you, they can be owned by someone who is not you. You don’t have to worry about liquidating them. We’ll go ahead and do that for you.
If your “private” company wants to stay “private”, they won’t secure funding from the ultra wealthy, or they will be ready to buy back your tax-shares at auction.
That seems painfully simple to make an exception for: assets you are not legally allowed to sell, transfer, convert, use as collateral would be excluded.
And that creates a loophole that is trivially easy to exploit, which is the problem. I simply wrap up any asset I want to hold onto into a fund or trust that stops me doing the above…
If the asset was ever legally liquid while in your possession, it qualifies for the tax.
Something can be legally liquid, but not practically liquid. Like a house. For example the Board of the company could give me permission to sell, but why would they?
You know that people pay taxes on the wealth embodied in their house, every year, right? Not even their equity in the house, but the full value - both the piece they own and the piece the bank still owns. Their primary residence is most of the wealth for most of the middle class, so we already have a wealth tax for everyone but the ultra-wealthy.
I’m sure you’re also aware of tax brackets? The same concept can be applied to wealth tax: legally liquid assets above a certain threshold would be taxable. Owner-occupied homes would be exempt.
This is a lot easier than you think.
