WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Brazil’s proposal to tax the super-rich globally gained momentum among Group of Twenty members yesterday, with France’s finance minister and the head of the International Monetary Fund backing a coordinated push to generate new revenue and build a better common future.
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said Brazil, current president of the Group of Twenty (G20), was aiming to build international consensus on the taxation of wealth this year, and would push for a joint declaration at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in July.
“The G20 declaration that we are going to propose aims to politically back these initiatives,” he told an event during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, underscoring the importance of winning support from the biggest economies.
His French counterpart Bruno le Maire, who had already expressed support for the Brazilian proposal, told the event that moving to tax the rich was the logical next step for a series of global taxation reforms launched in 2017, including agreement on a global corporate minimum tax. He said the G20 should aim to reach an agreement on taxing the rich by 2027.
Le Maire said any proposal should be based on the best practices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to ensure trust in the evolving system.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said closing tax loopholes and ensuring that the richest paid their fair share would mobilize funds urgently needed for sustainable and inclusive growth.
She said IMF research showed that ending tax avoidance by corporations could generate an additional $200 billion a year in revenue, while implementation of a global corporate minimum tax would result in an additional $150 billion. The IMF also estimated that setting a minimum floor for carbon pricing could boost revenue by $1.4 trillion a year, she said.
“When policymakers have the will, there is a way, and we have put out what the way is,” she said.
