Wealth Tax
The rise extreme wealth among the superrich is making our economies insecure and poorer than the sum of their parts.
Our economies were designed to let people earn the wealth they need to lead secure and comfortable lives, but our tax rules make it easier for the superrich to collect wealth than for the rest of us to earn it.
This has let the superrich collect extreme wealth to the point where our economies are less productive, more households are going into debt and people are living shorter lives.
We need wealth taxes to protect the economy we all rely on from the harms of extreme wealth, and to end the special tax treatment collected wealth gets over earned wealth. In the face of today’s global challenges such as climate breakdown, the cost of living crisis, unsustainable debt levels and the rising threat of authoritarianism, countries urgently need stable and reliable revenue sources that strengthen, rather than weaken, societies.
Wealth taxes are the best tool for putting an end to the special tax treatment given to wealth collectors (ie those who mainly live off of huge dividends and rent money they collect) above wealth earners (ie those who mainly live off of income they earn from working). Wealth taxes are necessary not just to raise urgently needed public funds, but to protect the earner way of life the rest of us rely on.
Our research shows that countries can raise $2 trillion in tax today by following Spain’s recent example and applying a small wealth tax of about 2% on the world’s richest 0.5%. Such revenues could fund public services, cut debt burdens and provide climate finance on a scale that is currently out of reach.
But a wealth tax cannot stand alone. To be effective, it must work alongside the broader agenda for tax justice. The Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index shows how secrecy jurisdictions enable the superrich to hide trillions offshore. Our Corporate Tax Haven Index exposes how multinational companies shift profits out of the countries where they actually do business. And our State of Tax Justice reports reveal how much public revenue is lost each year to these abuses. Wealth taxes, combined with action to end financial secrecy, enforce corporate transparency and stop governments from competing in harmful tax giveaways, offer a path to economies that are more secure, more equal and more democratic.
Join the growing global campaign to tax the superrich, fight extreme inequality, and build a fairer future for people and planet. Add your voice at taxthesuperrich.world.
