wealth taxes

Billionaire wealth jumped by over 16 per cent in 2025, three times faster than the past five-year average, to $18.3 trillion – its highest level in history, according to a new Oxfam report today as the World Economic Forum opens in Davos.

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. 

As political leaders gather for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, millionaires from around the world say elected representatives must tackle the existential global crisis posed by extreme wealth, by taxing the super-rich. 

The richest 1 percent have burned through their share of the annual global carbon budget —the amount of CO2 that can be added to the atmosphere without pushing the world beyond 1.5°C of warming— within the first 10 days of 2025, reveals new Oxfam analysis. 

Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts.

In response to the communiqué published following today’s meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, Oxfam International’s Tax Policy Lead, Susana Ruiz, said: “That conversations about taxing the super-rich are happening at the G7 and G20 is historic. A majority of people, across party lines and across countries, support proposals to fairly tax the rich.
 

EU governments are losing out on a staggering 286.5 billion euros in revenue annually, equivalent to 33 million euros per hour, due to their failure to fairly tax Europe’s wealthiest. This amount, equivalent to Finland’s GDP, represents what a European wealth tax of up to 5 percent could raise every year, according to Oxfam’s analysis. 

Less than eight cents in every dollar raised in tax revenue in G20 countries now comes from taxes on wealth, reveals new analysis by Oxfam today ahead of the first meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Sao Paulo, Brazil.