At the G20 meeting in Sao Paulo on Thursday, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told his colleagues that countries should introduce a global income tax on the super-rich to combat rampant tax evasion. This is reported by the Associated Press.
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Haddad said that tax evasion can be solved through international cooperation so that “these few people can contribute to our societies and the sustainable development of the planet.”
He added that Brazil is pushing for G20 members to adopt a declaration on international taxation, which he hopes will be ready in July. But at a press conference at the end of the meeting, he admitted that the path will not be easy.
“There will be a lot of discussion about this, absolutely natural, especially because not every country has the same attitude towards this issue that Brazil brought to the G20,” said the Brazilian Finance Minister.
Brazil currently leads the top 20 rich developing countries and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has put issues that concern developing countries – such as reducing inequality and reform of multilateral institutions – at the center of the agenda.
“Brazil has a role to play, to have legitimacy to address issues that need to be addressed and that are not always represented in the G20,” Haddad said, pointing to environmental, social and fiscal issues.
According to the study in 2023 According to the advocacy group Tax Justice Network, countries around the world could lose up to $4.8 trillion in tax revenue over the next decade due to tax havens.
And earlier this year, a report by the EU Tax Observatory, cited by Haddad, found that billionaires around the world have effective tax rates equivalent to 0% to 0.5% of their capital.
In recent years, scandals such as the Panama Papers leak have shed light on the prevalence of tax evasion taxes.
Meanwhile, according to the anti-poverty organization Oxfam International, the gap between the super-rich and the bulk of the world population has widened since the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today, taxes on assets are less than two -three decades ago. The global movement has tended to reduce taxation of companies and wealth,” said André Vereta-Naum, professor of sociology at the University of São Paulo.