The Patriotic Millionaires have a message that the G20 finance ministers literally can’t miss: “The G20 must act. Tax us, the super rich! We are proud to pay more.”
The leaders of the world’s leading economies are in town for the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. So naturally, we took it upon ourselves to project our simple message onto the buildings that house these institutions. The results were eye-popping.
Since Brazil assumed the presidency of the G20 in December, there have been some exciting developments in the tax justice world. As we told you a few weeks back, in February, finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries met in São Paulo, Brazil and discussed the idea of instituting a global minimum tax on the world’s 2,781 billionaires. Such an initiative would be modeled on the agreement that 136 OECD countries reached in 2021 to institute a 15% global minimum tax on multinational corporations. The initiative tracks with a proposal that the EU Tax Observatory, under the leadership of renowned economist Gabriel Zucman, put forth in its annual report in October.
Convincing the G20 to take a global minimum tax on billionaires seriously was no small feat. The Patriotic Millionaires were proud to play our part in making it happen. Last August, our Chair Morris Pearl, delivered a virtual speech to members of the Brazilian Parliament in which he underscored the importance of including global wealth taxation as part of Brazil’s formal G20 agenda. In September, we also organized a letter campaign that garnered over 300 signatures from economists, millionaires, and politicians – including 18 former heads of state – that called on the G20 heads of state to tax extreme wealth. This campaign generated a great deal of media buzz and received critical mentions in high-profile outlets like The Guardian, Financial Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Le Monde.
But the fight for tax justice is far from over, so neither is the work of the Patriotic Millionaires. This week, G20 finance ministers are meeting for the second time this year at the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Brazil’s and France’s finance ministers have offered their public support of a global minimum tax on billionaires, but in order to bring this idea to life, all G20 finance ministers need to get on board with it.
To that end, the Patriotic Millionaires projected animations onto the buildings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC with call-to-action messages directed at the G20 finance ministers. You can view and share a video of our projections on all our social media platforms: X (Twitter), Threads, YouTube, F
Below is a still image of one of the projection’s animations with the US Capitol in the distance:
One of our members, Abigail Disney, also penned an opinion piece for The Guardian about the need for the G20 – with particular attention paid to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – to tax extreme wealth. Abigail explains how this will safeguard global democracies and save our planet from the ravages of climate change. You can access and read the piece HERE.
Momentum is certainly building for the G20 to take action on taxing wealthy people like us. Public polls in all G20 countries indicate strong support for reducing gaps between the rich and the poor and for taxing the rich. The survey that the Patriotic Millionaires commissioned in December also found that the majority of millionaires in G20 countries support such an agenda.
The general public wants higher taxes on the super rich. Economists want it. Politicians want it. Even millionaires like ourselves want it.
For all these reasons and more, there is no excuse for the G20 to fail to take meaningful action to tax the rich. We hope that G20 finance ministers finish what they started back in February and fully commit themselves to instituting global minimum standards for taxing extreme wealth. We’ve made a lot of noise this week to encourage them to do so – and we won’t stop until they do.