Taxing Extreme Wealth – An annual tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires: What it would raise and what it could pay for

Using data from Forbes and Wealth-X covering 66 countries, this report estimates the revenue that can be raised by taxing the wealth of millionaires and billionaires across the globe. It was published on January 19, 2022, by Oxfam International; Patriotic Millionaires, Washington D.C.; the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington D.C.; and Fight Inequality Alliance.The report states that a wealth tax of two per cent on all millionaires, three per cent on those with wealth exceeding 50 million and five per cent on all billionaires could raise an annual revenue of 2.53 trillion US dollars. The resultant amount could get roughly 2.3 billion people out of poverty, fund Covid-19 vaccines for the entire world and finance universal health care and social protection measures for 3.6 billion people living in low- and lower middle-income countries. This 52-page document presents the global overview of the situation, followed by a series of factsheets for 44 countries from across the globe. Additionally, it also presents four regional fact sheets covering Africa, Asia (excluding countries in the ‘Middle East’), Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Each factsheet is divided into four sections: The Super-rich and the Pandemic (Section 1); The Rich Compared to Everyone Else (Section 2); Annual Wealth Tax (Section 3); and Health Not Wealth: Impact of Revenue on Health Spending (Section 4).