Nearly 300 millionaires, economists and politicians from almost all the G20 countries have called for a new international agreement on wealth taxes in an open letter to heads of state ahead of the grouping's upcoming economic summit.
The signatories, who include Yves Leterme, Thomas Piketty and Bernie Sanders, want to “prevent extreme wealth from continuing to affect our collective future.”
The signatories call on the G20 to use international cooperation to tax the world’s richest people and put an end to competition and tax evasion. “Our shared ambition must be to have national and international systems that serve all, not just those with money and power,” the letter states.
The signatories say inequality undermines political stability around the world. “The accumulation of extreme wealth by the world’s richest individuals has become an economic, ecological, and human rights disaster," they note. "Decades of falling taxes on the richest, based on the false promise that the wealth at the top would somehow benefit us all, has contributed to the rise in extreme inequality.”
A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also shows that in the richest countries, taxes on income are systematically higher than those on capital, Oxfam reveals in a press release.
The burden of solidarity is therefore borne disproportionately by ordinary workers, while the richest can take advantage of a tax system designed in their favour to reduce their contributions or circumvent this solidarity.
The G20 heads of state and government will meet in the Indian capital, New Delhi, on 9 and 10 September.
