The G20 countries had to agree on a tax on the super rich. But the US and Germany were against it.
In the end, it all ended with a soft and non-binding statement: “With full respect for the tax independence of individual countries, we will do our best to effectively tax the very rich.” After the meeting of Finance Ministers, the Brazilian Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, expressed his satisfaction with this joint statement. “The fight against hunger, poverty, inequality and the taxation of the super rich are already on the international economic agenda. A more just social and environmentally sustainable future must be achieved”, said Haddad in Rio de Janeiro after the meeting.
$250 billion to fight hunger
His optimism is based on the fact that this sentence is also included in the final statement. The concept proposed by Brazil, the current chairman of the G20 group, envisages an annual tax of two percent on the assets of the richest. According to Brazil’s calculations, this would bring in $250 billion that could be spent on the global fight against hunger, conflict and pandemics.
The tax would “hit” only a group of about 3,000 rich people around the world, as Reuters writes, among them are the owner of the Tesla brand, Elon Musk, the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos or the Frenchman Bernard Arnault, owner of a number of luxury brands. All of them affect the amount of about 200 billion dollars of wealth.
Spain and France for, USA and Germany against
The proposal quickly divided the G20 countries: while key members such as France, Spain and South Africa supported Brazil’s proposal, the US and Germany vetoed it. In Germany, Finance Minister and leader of the Liberal Party (FDP) Christian Lindner is against this idea. The Minister of Development Assistance, Svenja Schulze (Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD) has shown readiness for discussions on this type of tax. She said that “the world has become a more unfair place” when it comes to the distribution of wealth and that this is why Brazil’s proposal is “important and fair”. But the coalition partner of the Social Democrats, the FDP, which is otherwise known as the party that protects the rich, is against it.
The rise of the super rich
At the same time, it is precisely in Germany that there is a sudden increase in the so-called super-rich, which means people with assets over 100 million dollars. In Germany, the number of super-rich rose to 3,300 last year, which is 300 more than the year before. Germany is thus in third place, after the USA with 26,000 super rich. While in China there are 8,300 people who own more than 100 million dollars./DW
