G20 fails to agree on global billionaire tax – Politico

At a meeting in Brazil, the US led the campaign against a minimum levy on the world’s richest 3,000 people

The finance ministers of the world’s 20 leading economies have failed to agree on a global tax on billionaires, but promised to impose progressive taxes on the super-rich, Politico reported on Friday.

At a meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the ministers said they would start a “dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals,” according to the text of a joint communique seen by Politico.

The communique will be published later on Friday, and will not include a statement of support for a 2% levy on the world’s 3,000 richest billionaires, as Brazil, which currently holds the G20’s rotating presidency, hoped it would.

French economist Gabriel Zucman, a consultant with the G20 on taxation issues, claims that the levy would raise around  $250 billion globally per year.

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“Some individuals control more resources than entire countries,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at a press conference on Wednesday. A tax on billionaires could help fund the fight against world hunger, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad added, before cautioning that such a tax regime “will not be established overnight, because it is a very delicate mechanism.”

During talks on Thursday, it became apparent that some G20 governments would not back such a move. 

“We don’t see a need or really think it’s desirable to try to negotiate a global agreement on [a billionaire tax],” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at a press conference. “We think that all countries should make sure that their taxation systems are fair and progressive.”

Germany joined the US in opposing the levy, while France, Spain, South Africa, Colombia and the African Union backed the Brazilian proposal.