Despite Historic Levels of Inequality, Yellen Opposes Global Billionaires’ Tax – By Jon Queally (Common Dreams) / May 21, 2024
The treasury secretary will not back a plan at the upcoming G7 to set a minimum rate for the planet’s ultrawealthy.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is being taken to task by progressive critics after coming out Monday in opposition to a proposed global tax on billionaires at an upcoming Group of 7 nations meeting where the measure is on the agenda.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Yellen told the newspaper that while the Biden administration broadly supports more progressive taxation, in which those at the top of the income and wealth scale pay higher rates, the U.S. will not back a plan — put forth by Brazil and backed other G20 leaders earlier this year — that would set a minimum international rate for the planet’s ultra-wealthy.
In her remarks, Yellen said the “notion of some common global arrangement for taxing billionaires with proceeds redistributed in some way — we’re not supportive of a process to try to achieve that. That’s something we can’t sign on to.”
The proposed 2% global tax on the assets of the world’s billionaires, backers of the idea argue, would be a way to curb the international race to the bottom on taxation by hampering the ability of those with vast fortunes to move their money from bank to bank and nation to nation as a way to avoid paying their fair share into public coffers.
