As someone once said, there should be no billionaires. After you reach $999 million you get a trophy that says “I won capitalism” and a dog park named after you. But for those that do cross the ten-figure threshold, a European policy group is coming for you.

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Global billionaire tax could raise $250 billion annually, study says

One flaw in the tax system in many countries is the richer you are, the lower your effective tax rate. That’s why the EU Tax Observatory is calling for a global minimum tax on billionaires, which it says could raise $250 billion a year. The idea comes at a time of growing wealth inequality, and public finances struggling to cope with aging populations, funding the climate transition, and debt issued to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The independent research group estimates that the personal tax of billionaires in the US is close to 0.5% and as low as zero in France. It calculates the tax would be equivalent to only 2% of the nearly $13 trillion in wealth owned by the 2,700 billionaires globally. (One thing to remember, though, is that this kind of research is often itself flawed: it targets illiquid assets, rather than income – a solution largely impractical and laced with second-order effects.)

The EU Tax Observatory argues that global collaboration to all but end banking secrecy – making it harder for big companies to move profits to low-tax countries – is a good model for working together on a wealth tax. But, as we’ve seen with so many global drives – so often cooked up by the mates of those who’d get taxed – there’s only so much central planning can do to truly level the playing field.

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