Search Site

Trends banner

Eni profit falls due to dip in oil prices

Q2 net profit fell by 18% to $637 million.

Emirates NBD H1 profit $3.40bn

Total income rose by 12 percent in the same period.

ADIB H1 pre-tax profit $1.08bn

Q2 pre-tax net profit increases by 14 percent.

AstraZeneca to invest $50bn in US

Bulk of funds to go into a Virginia manufacturing center.

UAB net profit up by 50% for H1

Total assets increase by 11 percent.

European lawmakers demand tax on ultra-rich individuals

Most of the MEPs who signed are from Green or left-wing parties. (AFP)
  • A previous landmark deal for a global minimum 15 percent tax on multinational businesses is set to start to go into force this year
  • French MEP Aurore Lalucq and economist Gabriel Zucman propose a 1.5 percent tax for ultra-rich with wealth of $54 million or more

Strasbourg, France– A large group of MEPs called on Tuesday for a tax on wealthy individuals, similar to one on multinational companies, to fund the transition to a carbon-free world.

A previous landmark deal for a global minimum 15 percent tax on multinational businesses is set to start to go into force this year.

“What we have achieved for multinationals, we must now do for the wealthy,” French MEP Aurore Lalucq and economist Gabriel Zucman wrote in an opinion piece published in the French daily Le Monde, as they launched the campaign with more than 130 MEPs.

“Our proposal is simple: introduce a progressive tax on the wealth of the ultra-rich on an international scale in order to reduce inequalities while helping to finance investments needed for the green and social transition,” they said.

The signatories claimed that in 2018 Tesla owner Elon Musk, “then the second-richest man in the world, did not pay a single cent in federal taxes” and “in France, known for its high taxes, the 370 richest families are effectively taxed only around two to three percent”.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of mostly rich countries based in Paris, brokered the agreement on multinationals.

Lalucq and Zucman called on the OECD and the United Nations to start work on a similar tax on the richest people, and urged the European Union to act as well.

The authors propose a 1.5 percent tax on wealth of 50 million euros ($54 million) or more, but said the exact level should be decided “collectively and democratically”.

Most of the MEPs who signed are from Green or left-wing parties. They were joined by non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam, supported by a dozen economists and by 20 millionaires.