At the IMF, Brazil and France promote global taxes on the richest

Washington. The international community must do more to ensure that the world’s richest companies and individuals pay their “fair” share of taxes, the finance ministers of Brazil and France said on Wednesday.

Brazil, which this year chairs the group of the world’s 20 largest economies (G20), has been pushing for the group to adopt a joint stance by summer to prevent tax evasion by billionaires.

“Fair international taxation is not just an issue for progressive economists, but a key concern at the very heart of current macroeconomic management,” said Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.

“Without improved international cooperation, those at the top (on the wealth scale) will continue to find ways to evade existing tax systems” because “without cooperation there is a limit to what states can do,” Haddad insisted.

He asked countries to promote “fair, transparent, efficient and more progressive tax systems” so that the system is “fairer.”

Along the same lines, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire reiterated at the meeting his calls to create a global minimum tax and take strong measures against tax evasion.

France is among the world’s most developed economies that support a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent on large companies, and already applies a minimum tax to global tech giants.

“The future of the world cannot be a race to the bottom,” Le Maire said. “This also applies to taxes.”

In January, the European Union introduced a minimum tax rate of 15 percent for multinationals in its 27 member countries.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a global minimum tax could generate an additional $200 billion in revenue each year.

Le Maire also called on the richest people in the world. “Everyone has to pay their fair share of taxes,” he said.

Taking into account that there are about 3,000 ultra-rich people in the world, a 2 percent tax would produce additional income of about 250 billion dollars, according to French economist Gabriel Zucman.