Over 300 Millionaires, Economists, G20 Member Politicians Sign Onto New Letter Imploring the G20 to Tax the Ultra-Rich

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, September 5, 2023

CONTACT: Madison Donzis | madison@unbendablemedia.com 

Over 300 Millionaires, Economists, G20 Member Politicians Sign Onto New Letter Imploring the G20 to Tax the Ultra-Rich

 

Today, a new letter was released by over 300 millionaires, economists, and politicians, including over 18 heads of state, from around the world calling on the G20 heads of state to impose higher taxes on the global rich in order to “stop extreme wealth from corroding our collective future.”

The letter, which was organized by Patriotic Millionaires, the Institute for Policy Studies and Oxfam, comes ahead of the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit starting on September 9th.

Signatories include Disney heiress and philanthropist Abigail Disney, US Senator Bernie Sanders, US Representative Brendan Boyle, former and current European parliamentarians including Aurore Lalucq, artists Brian Eno and Richard Curtis, UN General Assembly past president Maria Espinosa, and world economists Gabriel Zucman, Jayati Ghosh, Kate Raworth, Jason Hickel, Lucas Chancel, Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty.

SEE THE FULL LETTER AND LIST OF SIGNATURES HERE: https://taxextremewealth.com

The massive accumulations of extreme wealth by the richest individuals is “an economic, ecological and human rights disaster” that is “threatening political stability all over the world,” the letter reads. “Across the world, people are desperate for change. Public polls in all G20 countries show overwhelming support for political action to curb inequality and tax extreme wealth.”

The letter calls for member states of the G20 to work together to enact new tax regimes–at the national and international levels–that eliminate the ability of the ultra-rich to avoid paying their dues and to introduce new rules that determine higher taxation of extreme wealth.

Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former Managing Director at BlackRock, said, “In recent decades, wealth inequality has skyrocketed around the world. The growing gap between rich and poor has destabilized the global economy, exacerbated the rise of extremist politics, and frayed the very fabric of our social order. As an ultra-wealthy person representing an organization of like-minded wealthy people, I am asking the G20 to tax us. The leaders of the world’s largest economies must coordinate swift and decisive action to reduce dangerous levels of inequality; if they fail to tax extreme wealth, the results will be a perpetually weakened global economy, the decline of democratic institutions, and worsening social unrest. The G20 must act.”

“Much work has already been done. There is an abundance of policy proposals on wealth taxation from some of the world’s leading economists,” the letter continues. “The public wants it. We want it. Now all that’s missing is the political will to deliver it. It’s time for you to find it.”

TAX AND WEALTH FACTS In the last decade those with over $50m have enjoyed an 18.3% growth on their wealth, while billionaires have seen their wealth grow by 109%. Only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes. Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth. Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day. For every dollar of new wealth gained by someone in the bottom 90%, one of the world’s billionaires has gained $1.7m. Half of all millionaires will not pay any inheritance tax and will pass on $5 trillion tax-free to the next generation. The average tax rate on the richest has fallen from 58% in 1980 to 42% in OECD countries. Tax on capital gains – typically the most important source of income for the top 1% – are only 18% on average across more than 100 countries. In the boom years of the 1950-60s, the top marginal rate of US federal income tax was 91%, inheritance tax was 77% until 1975 and corporate tax above 50%.

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