Timidly mentioned by the French government, a 2% global tax on the assets of billionaires would generate 40 billion euros of revenue for European States, according to a report published on Monday by the European Fiscal Observatory.
Funded in particular by the European Union, the Observatory proposes establishing a global minimum tax on the assets of some 2,800 billionaires, the rate of which would be set at 2%.
The principle of this tax is reminiscent of the 15% minimum tax on corporate profits, which is being progressively implemented around the world following the conclusion of an international agreement under the auspices of the OECD at the end of 2021.
Currently, European billionaires only pay six billion dollars in taxes a year, says the Observatory.
Big investments
But by taxing their assets with a 2% tax, these tax revenues could multiply seven-fold to reach $42.3 billion (€40 billion) in Europe and more than €200 billion globally.
In September, French Public Accounts Minister Thomas Cazenave said he wanted to create a “transpartisan working group” to consider international personal taxation.
The government rules out any new national tax on the wealth of the richest, considering that such a tax should be decided at the European or international level.
At the end of September, the communist deputies Nicolas Sansu and the moderate Jean-Paul Mattei suggested in a report the introduction of an exceptional and temporary tax on the assets of the richest Europeans.
In its report taking stock of the recent reforms of the international tax system, the Observatory on Monday welcomes the success of the automatic exchange of banking information, in force since 2017.
Weakened global tax
While “the majority” of the financial wealth deposited by households in tax havens was not declared to the tax authorities before 2013, ten years later, only approximately 25% of this wealth “escapes tax.”
The global minimum corporate tax, on the other hand, has been “considerably weakened,” lament the hundred researchers who contributed to the report.
In fact, the agreement negotiated in the OECD contains an exemption that allows companies to exclude part of their assets and payroll from the tax base. Therefore, its real tax rate falls clearly below the theoretically anticipated 15%.
Therefore, the Observatory suggests increasing the tax rate from 15% to 25%, which would lead to “almost tripling” tax revenues.
Source: BFM TV
