An annual 2% levy on fortunes exceeding $1 billion is the starting point for a global discussion on raising the burden on under-taxed billionaires, French economist Gabriel Zucman said.
Zucman, who founded the independent EU Tax Observatory, was commissioned by the Brazilian G20 presidency to present a report on the issue for discussion by finance ministers of the world's 20 largest economies at a meeting in July.
"The goal of this blueprint is to offer a basis for political discussions - to start a conversation, not to end it," Zucman wrote in the report released on Tuesday.
"It is for citizens to decide, through democratic deliberation and the vote, how taxation should be carried out."
Zucman said during a news conference he hoped that such a tax could materialize in less than nine years, which is the time it took to agree a global minimum tax on multinational corporate profits, already implemented by several countries.
Things start small .. and they grow to more people for you rookies out there.
