Austro-German Heiress Forms Citizen Group to Redistribute $25 Million Inheritance

An Austro-German heiress is forming a group of citizens to decide how to donate part of the fortune she inherited from her grandmother.

Marlene Engelhorn, who is 31 and lives in Vienna, wants 50 Austrians to determine how 25 million euros ($25 million) of her inheritance should be redistributed.

“Without having done anything for it, I have inherited a fortune and, therefore, power,” he said.

“And the state doesn’t even want to tax it.”

Austria abolished inheritance tax in 2008, one of the few European countries that does not tax inheritances.

Engelhorn considers this unfair.

She is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of the German chemical and pharmaceutical company BASF, and inherited a large sum of money when her grandmother died in September 2022.

The American magazine Forbes estimated Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto’s wealth at US$4.2 billion and even before she died, her granddaughter already stated that she wanted to distribute around 90% of her share in the inheritance.

On Wednesday, 10,000 invitations addressed to randomly selected citizens began to arrive in Austria.

Those who want to participate in Engelhorn’s initiative, known as “Good Council for Redistribution,” can register online or by phone.

From that initial sample of 10,000 Austrians, all over 16 years of age, 50 people will be chosen and 15 substitute members will also be selected in case of dropout.

“If politicians don’t do their job and redistribute wealth, then I will do it myself,” she explained in her statement.

“Many people have trouble making ends meet with a full-time job and pay taxes on every euro they earn from their job. This is a failure of politics, and if politics fails, then citizens will have to make a living.”

In May 2022, Marlene Engelhorn joined a handful of millionaires in Davos calling for higher taxation for the rich.

Christoph Hofinger, general director of the Pension Institute, which supports the initiative, stated that the council for the redistribution of the heiress’s money would be made up of 50 people “of all ages, federal states, social classes and origins.”

The group will be asked to “contribute their ideas to jointly develop solutions in the interest of all of society,” he said.

They will participate in a series of meetings to be held in Salzburg with academics and civil society organizations from March to June of this year.

2024-01-14 01:31:01
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