On Wednesday, a group of over 100 millionaires from nine countries, as well as international organizations including Oxfam, called for a wealth tax on the world’s wealthy.
Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity, and Tax Me Immediately are among the organizations that have called on governments to “tax us, the rich, and tax us now.”
According to Oxfam, the tax money would be used to decrease extreme inequality and pay fundamental social services such as national healthcare, education, and disaster relief.
The Patriotic Millionaires’ letter was released in time for the World Economic Forum’s “Davos Agenda” series of events.
Abigail Disney, a U.S. film producer and heiress, Danish-Iranian entrepreneur Djaffar Shalchi, American entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, and Austrian student and BASF heiress Marlene Engelhorn are among the signatories, according to reports.
According to estimates published by Oxfam, a wealth tax that starts at 2% per year for millionaires and rises to 5% per year for billionaires could raise 2.52 trillion dollars per year globally.
“As millionaires, we realize that the current tax structure is not fair,” they wrote in the letter.
“Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years.
“We have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic yet few, if any of us can honestly say that we pay our fair share in taxes.”