The finance ministers of the G20 countries discussed the issue of taxing the super-rich (see EUROPE 13329/27) at a meeting in São Paulo on Thursday 29 February. The Brazilian minister, Fernando Haddad, and the French minister, Bruno Le Maire, in particular, advocated for the idea of a third pillar of the OECD agreement.
“Despite recent progress, it is undeniable that the world’s billionaires continue to evade our tax systems through a variety of strategies”, deplored Mr Haddad in his speech. He referred to the European Tax Observatory’s latest report on tax evasion, which shows that billionaires pay an effective tax rate equivalent to 0 to 0.5% of their wealth (see EUROPE 13277/20).
“Dear colleagues, I sincerely wonder how we G20 finance ministers can allow such a situation to continue. If we act together, we have the capacity to ensure that these few individuals make their contribution to our societies and to the sustainable development of the planet”, he said.
“The international taxation of wealth should be a third pillar of our international tax cooperation programme”, he concluded. To discuss this matter, he invited economist Gabriel Zucman to present his proposal for taxing the super-rich.
For his part, Bruno Le Maire had assured a press conference the day before that he would be “very strongly” committed to this new objective. “We want to avoid this tax optimisation and we want to do it at international level because it is the only effective way”, he said. He wants Europe to take this idea of minimum taxation of individuals forward as quickly as possible, and for France to be at the forefront on this issue. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)