BRAZIL - Tax the Super-Rich?
According to the proposal before the Group of 20, individuals with over $1 billion in total assets would be required to pay the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax.
Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told reporters that the final declaration will mention a proposal to tax the super-rich, but he didn’t detail wording or whether it will specifically cite the 2% proposition.
France, Spain and South Africa—which will chair the G20 in 2025—had expressed support, an official from the Brazilian Ministry of Finance told journalists. But U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated at a news conference that the U.S. does not support the initiative.
Billionaires currently pay the equivalent of 0.3% of their wealth in taxes, according to a report from French economist Gabriel Zucman commissioned by Brazil.
The richest 1% have amassed $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade, nearly 36 times more than the entire bottom 50% of the world’s population, according to an Oxfam analysis released ahead of the finance ministers’ meeting.
The global alliance against hunger and poverty aims to implement a mechanism to mobilize funds and knowledge to support the expansion of policies and programs to combat inequality and poverty, according to a statement from Brazil’s G20 press office. It would be managed by a secretariat located at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome and Brasilia until 2030, with half of its costs covered by Brazil, [President] Lula said in his speech.
-abcnews.go.com, 25 July 2024
Arno's Commentary
Paying taxes is the duty of virtually all citizens on planet earth. The question always is, who pays what and how much? The article indicates that billionaires pay the equivalent of 0.3% of their wealth in taxes. According to SSA.gov, Social Security taxes are collected as follows: “Social Security is financed through a dedicated payroll tax. Employers and employees each pay 6.2 percent of wages up to the taxable maximum of $168,600 (in 2024), while the self-employed pay 12.4 percent.”
The decisions or proposals of the G20 finance ministers are not binding, much less enforceable.
What does the future hold? From Scripture, we know the statement Jesus made, “For ye have the poor with you always” (Mark 14:7a). At the very end, we read that there will be equality: “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains” (Revelation 6:15).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
