How to tax billionaires
5/24/202644 min
How many billionaires are there in the world? How much has their wealth grown by? Why do lots of billionaires pay almost no income tax? How much of a problem are tax havens? Would a 2% global wealth tax (on people with over $100million) work in practice?
Robert and Steph talk to prominent economist Gabriel Zucman about his decades long research on wealth inequality and discuss the pros and cons of wealth taxation policies.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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First 90 secondsGabriel Zucman· Guest0:01
It's impossible to tax a superpower. The current situation is a violation.
Steph McGovern· Host0:06
Mm.
Gabriel Zucman· Guest0:06
The explosion of billionaire wealth has been one of the most striking features of the world economy. In the Sunday Times Rich List, they own in wealth the equivalent of 25% of the UK's GDP.
Steph McGovern· Host0:20
That's incredible.
Gabriel Zucman· Guest0:21
It has increased from 5% to 25%. That's not okay.
Steph McGovern· Host0:24
So you came up with a proposal to impose a 2% annual levy.
Gabriel Zucman· Guest0:29
Frankly, it's the beginning of the solution.
Steph McGovern· Host0:31
The leader of Reform's taking money from billionaires. Surely they'll find ways to make their wealth not look as big as it is. As you say, they've got the power.
Gabriel Zucman· Guest0:40
Yeah.
Steph McGovern· Host0:41
So they can play the system on that front.
Gabriel Zucman· Guest0:43
If you were to do this, all of these people would relocate elsewhere and would also stop investing in the UK.
Steph McGovern· Host0:50
Yeah, that's the central question. And so we're delighted to say that this year The Rest Is Money is powered by Octopus Energy, and we've got Greg here. Greg, good to see you. So oil prices are very volatile. If they stay like that, what can we do to protect the UK economy?
Speaker 31:06
In the long run, electrification's the answer. Uh, ever since I was a kid, we've had periodic fossil fuel shocks, uh, and more fossil fuels aren't the long-term answer because the reality is that industry will never have spare capacity. They wouldn't invest in stuff if, unless you're using it every day, uh, which means that whenever there's a constraint on supply, prices go up. We never used to have an alternative, but now with electrification we