Brazil and France want the G20 to get behind a global minimum tax on billionaires’ wealth, also backed by IMF chief, but Germany rejects the idea French Minister for Economy, Finance, Industry and Digital Security Bruno Le Maire (L) and Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad arrive at a joint press briefing on taxation during IMF/World Bank Sprint meeting in Washington on April 17, 2024. Photo by Yuri Gripas/ABACAPRESS.COMNo The finance ministers of Brazil and France pushed this week for a tax on US-dollar billionaires of at least 2% of their wealth each year, with the $250 billion it could raise going to tackle poverty, hunger and climate change. Brazil’s Fernando Haddad and France’s Bruno Le Maire promoted their proposal at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, alongside IMF head Kristalina Georgieva and Kenyan finance minister Njuguna Ndung’u. “In a world where economic activities are increasingly transnational, we have to find new and creative ways to tax these activities [and] thus direct the revenues to common global endeavours such as ending hunger and poverty and fighting climate change,” said Haddad. He called on world leaders to show “political courage”, embrace “innovative solutions based on evidence” and give their people “hope”. “Without courage, there’s no good politics that can be done,” he said. Speaking next at a briefing in Washington, Le Maire said overhauling the taxation system was “a matter of efficiency and a matter of justice”, and that a levy on the super-rich should follow already-agreed measures for a digital tax and global minimum corporation tax. “Everybody has to pay his fair share of taxation,” he added. Canadian minister vows to fight attempts to weaken plastic pollution treaty French economist Gabriel Zucman is... |