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Wealth tax on super-rich could raise £1.5tn globally, campaigners say

The Tax Justice Network said trillions could be raised with a ‘featherlight’ tax on the 0.5% of richest households, copying a current Spanish tax

Governments around the world copying Spain’s wealth tax on the super-rich could raise more than $2tn (£1.5tn), according to campaigners calling for the money to help finance the climate transition.

As a growing numbers of countries consider raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy, the Tax Justice Network campaign group said in a report that evidence from a “featherlight” tax on the 0.5% richest households in Spain could help raise trillions of dollars globally each year.

The Spanish government, under the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, introduced a temporary “solidarity” wealth tax in late 2022, which is collected in 2023 and 2024, on the net wealth of individuals exceeding €3m (£2.6m). It is estimated to apply to the richest 0.5% of households.

MediaBiasFactChecker Bot ,
Five ,

Dave Van Zandt’s site, Media Bias Fact Check puts The Guardian and Breitbart in the same (Factual Reporting: MIXED) category of credibility. Apparently this is because they both have articles where the facts are contested. This ignores the difference in size of the two news sources’ publication rate, the number of articles contested, and the seriousness and type of errors. Van Zandt is not a social scientist, and should not be running a credibility gatekeeper when he doesn’t understand statistics, science, or bias.

MBFC uses a fundamentally flawed methodology for categorizing bias. Lemmy.World loses credibility every day this bot continues to operate.

TheTechnician27 ,
@TheTechnician27@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you for this public service. This bot is a fucking joke. We use The Guardian all the time as a reliable source on Wikipedia, and rightfully so. Breitbart, on the other hand, is so comically unreliable that it was deprecated (the same exact measure as the Daily Mail), and then on top of that it was added to the spam blacklist due to “persistent abuse”.

Aurenkin ,

It’s also worth pointing out that from memory more than half the Guardian articles cited by MBFC as having failed fact checks were corrected or removed.

Also there is currently a pinned feedback thread on the news community asking for feedback on the bot so please post your thoughts in there if you haven’t already.

Five ,

I’ve posted twice in the thread in !politics, as well as reached out to @Rooki, and his responses reek of bad faith. I’ve posted in the pinned thread, but if it has come this far, then politely containing our discontent to the sanctioned channels is not enough.

It’s pretty hard to ignore the overwhelming downvotes the bot posts have attracted, and if someone sees that and still thinks MBFC is a good idea, I question their judgement. It’s likely they will ignore our well-thought out concerns as well.

My suggestion is to respond directly to the bot so that people observing the spectacle of downvotes have a better understanding of what is going on. We downvote MBFC because we are on the side of fact-checking and media literacy - not against it.

Rooki ,
@Rooki@lemmy.world avatar

We are collecting all the feedback here: lemmy.world/post/18775630

We are trying to come to a better solution ( except removing fully the bot ).

Aurenkin ,

Well said, it’s definitely a frustrating situation. I’ve also done my best through the proper channels, I don’t think much in the way of constructive action is likely to come from it but hopefully I’m wrong. At least from the many downvotes it seems like we’re far from alone but that also makes it more frustrating in a way.

Vinny_93 ,

I also read they started doing this in some American state and it raised 1.8 billion dollars. If this idea appeals to you, try to find out if there are any petitions in your country that suggest something like this. If you’re from the Netherlands, the SP has a petition like this.

MoonManKipper ,

Wealth taxes are rarely efficient and create all sorts of weird and counter productive effects. Better to properly tax income and capital gains.

Nougat ,

Examples?

baru ,

The rich usually ensure that there are enough gigantic exceptions. And these exceptions often aren’t reported upon.

And maybe he believes the trickle down economy bs.

MoonManKipper ,

Trickle down is complete BS and the many ways to avoid wealth taxes are part of the problem with them. You need to properly tax income and capital gains and close as many of the loopholes around each as possible. Then add a proper estate tax as well to reduce inter generational wealth

MoonManKipper ,

Also require greater transparency around money movement and proper auditing. Governments need to spend more on auditing.

MoonManKipper ,

Of the counter-productive effects? I have a bunch of shares in a private company that I was given for good performance and retention. At the latest share price from the latest funding round they’re worth more than enough to put me in the 0.5%. However, they’re not liquid - I can’t sell them unless the company floats or is bought. Under a simple wealth tax I’d have to pay many thousands of pounds of tax on them every year despite them having no realisable value. Just because something is an asset with a nominal value doesn’t mean it’s liquid or generating income. Obviously when (if) I sell the shares I’ll pay capital gains, or if they generate a dividend, income tax.

Nougat ,

That seems painfully simple to make an exception for: assets you are not legally allowed to sell, transfer, convert, use as collateral would be excluded.

MoonManKipper ,

And that creates a loophole that is trivially easy to exploit, which is the problem. I simply wrap up any asset I want to hold onto into a fund or trust that stops me doing the above…

Nougat ,

If the asset was ever legally liquid while in your possession, it qualifies for the tax.

MoonManKipper ,

Something can be legally liquid, but not practically liquid. Like a house. For example the Board of the company could give me permission to sell, but why would they?

Nougat ,

I'm sure you're also aware of tax brackets? The same concept can be applied to wealth tax: legally liquid assets above a certain threshold would be taxable. Owner-occupied homes would be exempt.

This is a lot easier than you think.

tburkhol ,

You know that people pay taxes on the wealth embodied in their house, every year, right? Not even their equity in the house, but the full value - both the piece they own and the piece the bank still owns. Their primary residence is most of the wealth for most of the middle class, so we already have a wealth tax for everyone but the ultra-wealthy.

tburkhol ,

I’m sure you’ll understand if the rest of us are skeptical of a guy worth $20M arguing against a wealth tax.

I mean, you’re right that restricted shares are a special problem in assessing “wealth,” but that’s why tax laws are complicated and full of loopholes.

MoonManKipper ,

I’m in favour of tax and rich folk paying more, but a naive imagining that a simple wealth tax is the answer just isn’t helpful. I’m against wealth taxes because they’re crap taxes - they’re easy to avoid, easy to get caught in by accident if you’re not employing an expensive accountant, and therefore a rubbish way of raising money

NoForwardslashS ,

That is indeed counter productive for rich people like yourself yes.

Rivalarrival ,

If the shares can be owned by you, they can be owned by someone who is not you. You don’t have to worry about liquidating them. We’ll go ahead and do that for you.

If your “private” company wants to stay “private”, they won’t secure funding from the ultra wealthy, or they will be ready to buy back your tax-shares at auction.

AshMan85 ,

the rich are ruining every country, every economy except for their own, and the environment. let’s make the rich extinct before they make all of us extinct.

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