In Luxembourg: G20 countries want to tax billionaires, Luxembourg says no

The G20 leaders endorsed, on Monday, the idea of ​​cooperating to “effectively” tax very wealthy people, an initiative pushed by Brazilian President Lula. But the idea arouses the rejection of Gilles Roth, the Luxembourg Minister of Finance. Last week, in the Chamber of Deputies, he criticized this tax, calling it “unrealistic”, “inapplicable” and stressed that the government did not intend to support such a measure in the future. .

According to the NGO Oxfam, over the last two decades, the wealth of the richest 1% in G20 countries has jumped by nearly 150% in real value, excluding the effect of inflation, to reach 68.7 trillion dollars. The share of total wealth that they control increased from 26% to 31% – while the poorest half of the population saw theirs fall from 6% to less than 5%.

Taxing the most fortunate more also appears to be a potential source of financing, at a time when the deficits of many countries are slipping and the needs for adaptation to climate change are increasing. In their joint statement, the heads of state and government write: “With full respect for fiscal sovereignty, we will seek to engage in a cooperative manner, to ensure that very wealthy individuals are effectively taxed.” But the matter is not won.

Argentine President Javier Milei, for example, announced that he rejected “several points” of the final declaration, “especially the idea that greater intervention by the State is the way to fight against hunger”, in a press release. official. And his great ally Donald Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has flatly promised to lower taxes.

One of the Republican’s strong supporters during his campaign was the richest man in the world, the boss of Tesla and owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk. And in Forbes’ ranking of billionaires, three-quarters of the 20 richest people in the world have American nationality.

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