France is rapidly seeking a minimum international tax on billionaires

Bruno Le Maire, on the sidelines of the G20 summit of finance ministers in Sao Paulo, urged the establishment of a minimum tax on large personal wealth. said the French minister Wants to speed up international negotiations.

The Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, Bruno Le Maire, who spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the G20 of Finance Ministers held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Wednesday February 28, reiterated France’s desire to accelerate the establishment. A system for taxing billionaires around the world.

“We are fully committed to accelerating the process of establishing at the international level, at the OECD level, at the G20 level and I hope at the level of the European countries, the minimum taxation of individuals to counter any kind of tax optimization. For people around the world”

The French minister supported it.

International taxation, the only effective way

As a reminder, an international agreement concluded in 2021 between 140 countries under the auspices of the OECD, due to enter into force this year, already sets a global floor of 15% for corporate tax. Now, after multinationals, France wants a new push to establish a global minimum tax on billionaires.

“Today you have the possibility for the richest people to avoid paying the same amount of income tax as others who are less wealthy. We want to avoid this tax optimization, we want to do it internationally because that is the only effective way”More ministerial confirmation in Brazil.

” We want Europe to support this idea of ​​minimum taxation of individuals as quickly as possible and France will be at the forefront of this topic.

», said again at Bruno Le Maire Reuters. This in any case makes a new revival of the topic on taxation of the richest. A letter signed by 250 millionaires and billionaires from 17 countries, supported by a certain number of politicians, especially European elected officials, leaders including American President Joe Biden and some rich people, debates on the taxation of the richest. Finally move on to concrete?

” Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the richest in society. This will not fundamentally change our standard of living, deprive our children, or harm the economic development of our countries. But it would turn extreme, unproductive private wealth into an investment in our shared democratic future », wrote, 250 millionaires and billionaires of the world gathered in Davos on January 17.

Brazil will start the discussion

Earlier at the summit, the European Tax Observatory indicated in a study published in October 2023 that the establishment of a global minimum tax on billionaires could raise $250 billion in revenue per year, Reuters recalls. On Wednesday, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, quoted by the agency, said Brazil would take advantage of its G20 presidency to begin discussions on international measures aimed at discouraging billionaires from using tax havens.