"2% Wealth Tax Should Be Levied on 3,000 Super Rich Worldwide"

Four member countries, including Brazil, the chair country of this year's Group of Twenty (G20) summit, have proposed that the world's 3,000 billionaires should be taxed a wealth tax equivalent to at least 2% of their assets, the British daily The Guardian reported on the 25th (local time).

G20 photo. [Photo by Xinhua Yonhap News]

According to The Guardian's report on the 25th (local time), ministers from Brazil, Germany, Spain, and South Africa signed a statement on a "fair tax system" containing this proposal. The ministers pointed out in the statement that "due to ongoing loopholes in the current system, high-net-worth individuals can minimize their income tax" and that "the world's billionaires currently pay only about 0.5% of their wealth in personal income tax."

They added, "It is important that our tax systems ensure transparency, sufficient revenue, and fair treatment of all citizens," and said, "Just as the international community has agreed to apply a global minimum tax rate to multinational corporations, the same can be done for billionaires." In 2021, 140 countries agreed to set a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15%.

The ministers emphasized that such wealth tax collection should be used to address global poverty, inequality, and climate change. They proposed raising an annual fund of ?250 billion (approximately 430 trillion won) through wealth tax to tackle these issues. The wealth tax is a G20 agenda item actively promoted by Brazil and was submitted as a topic at the G20 finance ministers' meeting earlier this year. G20 countries plan to discuss this agenda again at working group meetings scheduled for June.

French economist Gabriel Zucman, who is involved in the work on wealth tax, stressed, "Billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than any other social group," and added, "No one supports the fact that those with the greatest ability to pay taxes are paying the least."