Tax the Rich

The combined wealth of EU billionaires increased by more than 400 billion euros in just six months this year – the equivalent of over two billion euros a day. That is according to Oxfam’s new report, “A European Agenda to Tax the Super-Rich” which comes ahead of EU Finance Ministers meeting to discuss ways to finance the EU’s budget.   

40 former Heads of State and Government are calling for “a new economic coalition of the willing” to urgently tackle inequality in a joint letter released ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville.

Taxes that disproportionately affect ordinary Europeans – consumption and labour taxes – bring in 13 times more revenue than taxes on wealth, which are paid mainly by the super-rich, according to a new analysis by Oxfam. 

Climate disasters don’t affect everyone equally. The super-rich are responsible for a disproportionate share of carbon emissions while the rest of the world faces the worst consequences. As people struggle to recover from floods, fires and rising food prices, the super-rich can protect themselves and even profit from the crisis.

Oxfam’s new research shows how the super-rich are also actually cashing in on climate pain – making huge profits from sky-high food prices and profiting from disasters. Meanwhile, ordinary people, hit by successive climate shocks, struggle to recover.

The amount of wealth that the G20’s own billionaires made just last year – $2.2 trillion – would have been more than enough to lift 3.8 billion people out of poverty, says Oxfam. 

As you prepare to meet in Luxembourg on 20 June, we urge you to consider a matter of growing importance: the urgent need to establish new, fair, and sustainable resources for the European Union.

The carbon footprint of a super-rich European, accumulated from nearly a week of using super yachts and private jets, matches the lifetime carbon footprint of someone in the world’s poorest 1 percent, a new Oxfam report reveals today. The first-of-its-kind study, “Carbon Inequality Kills”, tracks the emissions from private jets, yachts and polluting investments and comes ahead of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, amidst growing fears that climate breakdown is accelerating, driven largely by the emissions of the richest people.

Responding to the Rio de Janeiro G20 Ministerial Declaration on International Tax Cooperation published today, Oxfam International’s Tax Policy Lead Susana Ruiz, said: "This is serious global progress —for the first time in history, the world’s largest economies have agreed to cooperate to tax the ultra-rich. Finally, the richest people are being told they can't game the tax system or avoid paying their fair share."
 

The richest 1 percent have amassed $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade, nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50 percent of the world’s population, according to new analysis by Oxfam today ahead of the third meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.