Hvorfor betaler milliardærer mye mindre i skatt enn vanlige folk?
Med det spørsmålet utløste den anerkjente økonomen Gabriel Zucman en opphetet debatt i hjemlandet Frankrike. Også i resten av verden og i Norge er skattebyrden svært ujevnt fordelt.
Zucman har i mange år forsket på og avslørt hvordan systemet muliggjør skatteunndragelse gjennom skatteparadis og smutthull i lovverket. Konklusjonen hans er klar: De superrikes svært beskjedene andel til fellesskapet er udemokratisk og ikke rettferdig. Dette banebrytende manifestet redegjør for hvordan vi bør skattlegge mennesker med ufattelig rikdom og endre den åpenbare urettferdigheten.
Gabriel Zucman har skrevet et eget forord til denne utgivelsen som er oversatt av Erik Ringen.
Den norske utgaven har etterord skrevet av Andreas Økland (f. 1993). Han har doktorgrad i samfunnsøkonomi og er forsker ved Skatteforsk – Senter for skatte- og atferdsforskning ved Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet i Ås.
J’ai pris des notes, le ou la prochain(e) qui vient m’expliquer que faire payer plus d’impôts aux riches n’est pas une bonne idée, je saurais l’accueillir
En este breve ensayo, el famoso académico francés explica cómo las personas más ricas de nuestras sociedades eluden pagar impuestos gracias a complejos sistemas de ingeniería fiscal. A través de holdings, o sociedades cartera, los multimillonarios reducen sus aportaciones a las arcas públicas. Frente a esto, Zucman propone un impuesto mínimo del 2% sobre estas grandes riquezas. El autor defiende que este tipo de medidas son esenciales ya que la evasión fiscal amplifica las desigualdades e incrementa la deuda pública de los Estados.
A short, sweet, and absolutely essential book that lays out the blueprint for fixing one of the biggest political and economic problems of our time.
The unchecked wealth of billionaires has increased exponentially over the past several decades at an unprecedented level, contributing towards rising inequality and poverty. To illustrate this acceleration, global billionaire wealth has increased by roughly 81% since 2020— all the while a cost of living crisis and stagnating wages can be felt by the masses. This can only be described as an “explosion of billionaire wealth” that perhaps many people are entirely unaware of — and of course, wealth begets power and the ability to shape political discourse.
I was surprised to find that this book came in at only 38 pages excluding notes. Zucman is concise and methodical in the way he illustrates problems and solutions. While I would’ve enjoyed something a bit more expansive, We Need to Tax Billionaires pairs very nicely with broader discussions taking place via online platforms like Gary’s Economics among Zucman’s own channels and offers a concrete vision as to how a wealth tax could actually be effectively implemented.
Whenever wealth taxes are proposed, fierce opponents tend to emerge, claiming cliches like “billionaires will leave the country” or “such systems are notoriously difficult to implement and have failed in the past”. Zucman addresses all these concerns. This book turns the idea of wealth taxes as a radical fantasy on its head, firmly establishing the initiative as a political necessity that simply makes sense.
Zucman’s proposal is deceptively simple: a 2% tax on an individual’s total wealth for those with a net wealth of more than €100 million. Despite regional differences, broadly speaking, under current systems, billionaires use various techniques and exploit deliberate loopholes to avoid paying taxes and excise themselves from contributing towards the very societies that they themselves have benefited from. The 2% system would ensure that those who currently pay less would reach this threshold. In turn, a more progressive and fairer tax system would be created by correcting the anomaly in which the super rich pay much less tax as a proportion compared to the rest of the population.
De los cuadernos de anagrama que he leído, el ensayo más puro. Va a los datos, al detalle, al por qué y al cómo. Ojalá una adaptación con datos de España, ya que este es Francés y estaría bien saber qué cantidad de ultrarricos hay en nuestro país y, ya que nos ponemos, Europa.
Spis… nei unnskyld, skattlegg de rike. Fantastisk bok, og den norske versjonen er kronet med et enestående etterord av legenden Andreas Økland. Løp, kjøp, og bli opplyst. Bon appétit!
Kısacık neredeyse makale sayılabilecek bir kitap. Fakat çok anlaşılır bir şekilde derdini anlatıyor. Hemen her devletin anayasasında olan vergi adaleti maddesinin hiçbir şekilde işlemediğini, zenginlerin likidite yokluğu diye ağızlarından düşürmediği durumun planlı olduğunu ve halkın sosyal yardımlara ulaştığı için fazla vergi vermesi gerektiği kabulünü açıkça ortaya koyuyor. Yazarın meseleyi eğip bükmeden ele almasını sevdim ama demokrasiden umutlu olmasına katılmadım.
Om hvorfor de hyperrike bør betale skatt (jf tittel). Kort, men fin innføring i hvorfor borgerlig argumentasjon mot formueskatt m.m er - faglig sett - vrøvl. Spesielt siste halvdel er knallsterk. Boken appellerer nok mest til personer med sosialdemokratiske/sosialistiske disposisjoner, men også til folk med en måtelig fungerende hjerne.
Outside of climate change, the most pressing issue that the UK and other western democracies face is inequality.
There is a pressing need to break up the global companies that are frequently becoming bigger than the states they occupy, through the use of antitrust laws and monopoly commissions.
There is a recognition that we are in a second Gilded Age and that the concentration of wealth among the richest one percent has already exceeded the first. This is an extant danger to democracy, even in times of plenty, let alone this stagnant period we find ourselves in.
There also seems to be a growing agreement that wealth taxes must be implemented to rebuild ailing public services. And of course, there are many conflicting opinions as to how effective they might be and how best to implement them.
If like me you would like to advocate for wealth taxes and make the argument, this your book. It’s a very short read but it makes the argument clear and irrefutable. Wealth taxes can work, and I believe we should all be lobbying for them.
Ce livre est très clair et reflète complètement la réalité. Une réalité souvent ignorée par la majorité. Dans ce livre, le problème de l'impôt inexistant pour les milliardaires est très largement argumenté.
La plupart des personnes défendant les milliardaires avancent qu'"ils payent déjà beaucoup d'impôts". Cet "argument" est simplement détruit par les chiffres et les explications que donne cet économiste.
Enfin, ce livre permet de se rendre compte que dans la société inégalitaire qu'est la nôtre, les milliardaires ne contribuent en réalité qu à destabiliser le système et mettre certaines personnes en marge de cette même société.
On comprend également pourquoi le RN notamment, qui sont les petits moutons des grands milliardaires, ont refusé la taxe zucman...
Bra idé i sin enkelhet. Roligt att fransmän alltid refererar så sjukt mycket till franska revolutionen och frihet och moral i sina politiska skrifter. Liksom ja det borde va självklart med progressiv beskattning och att alla ska bidra till samhället men att utgå från att alla resonerar som att det är det är ganska komiskt i det rådande politiska klimatet.
Arguing in favour for a minimum tax on wealth held by the ultra-rich, Gabriel Zucman’s short treatise is concise, clear and slightly underwhelming.
Cards on the table, I find Gary Stevenson’s YouTube work fascinating. His latest series got a little rambling, but he is a superb advocate against inequality and threats to democracy. Stevenson promoted Zucman and described it as a blueprint for how a tax on ultra-rich wealth could be implemented. So I got the book on Amazon for my Kindle when it came up as a limited time discount at 99p.
This is a short book, and it helps to articulate some of the points around a Wealth Tax with obvious examples. Ordinary taxpayers contribute via income tax, whilst the ultra-rich can avoid paying income tax to the same extent because they shield their taxable income via corporate entities. This is a perfectly legal evasion, but it concentrates wealth in unaccessible shell companies that provides those ultra-rich people with incredible influence over markets and politics. Zucman argues that this concentration of untapped wealth increases social and economic inequality.
Zucman’s pamphlet does get into what the effect of that inequality is, mainly a stagnant middle class, erosion of social mobility and massive economic instability for working families. However, the crux of the book is that a problem exists and Zucman has a solution to offer. It is attractively simple and would fit nicely in any political party’s manifesto because the name captures enough of the policy to organically make sense for an ordinary voter.
The policy itself is a 2% annual minimum tax on individuals with a net worth above £87,000,000. Zeros matter here and on paper it is hard for me to imagine the difference between £870,000, £8,700,000 and £87,000,000. The difference is an incredibly nice house in Manchester (£870,000), a footballer’s salary (£8,700,000) and a whole row of nice houses, a private island and still have money left over for cat treats (£87,000,000). So the latter bracket being the minimum threshold seems reasonable, because unlike a lot of politicians I don’t know anybody who owns a private island. This 2% figure is similar to a 33% tax on the ultra-rich persons income, which in the UK is less than the high rate for incomes above £50,271 (2026/27).
Zucman’s estimate is that this would raise about $300 to $380 billion per year ($300,000,000,000) worldwide. In France, his estimate is between €15 to €25 billion, which is not unreasonable to lift across for the UK in very broad terms. So for context, via a quick Google AI, that is almost equal to the UK’s annual Research and Development budget, half of the UK’s annual spending on police, fire services, courts and prisons, and about 15% of the annual spending on education.
An important distinction is that the tax mechanism would only apply if the person is paying less then 2% of their total wealth in tax. So for those very handsome former Match of the Day philanthropists, this kind of tax mechanism may not even engage on account of them already satisfying their civic duty. The whole idea is that this is a progressive tax that redresses a blind spot in the way income tax was supposed to function before the accumulation of gigantic wealth that is out of reach of an out of date system.
A quote I particularly liked here was “There is no right to become rich and then have no duty whatsoever towards humanity”. It fits the theme of this tax, and helps to combat one of the less generous criticisms (available wherever you get your podcasts) which is that the revenue raised by this tax is not a magic wand. It comes back to a philosophical point about the purpose of progressive taxation systems in the first place, which are now near universal. Governments tax citizens’ pay to build a better country for everyone, as well as to balance wealth gaps between citizens and to manage the flow of money in the whole system. A sizeable amount of that pay is now being locked out of the system by a very small group of citizens, and it is causing problems for everybody.
I’m not an expert though, and it is hard to review this book without repeating the arguments because they are so effective. Economic inequality is one of the most critical issues of our time, so when a book comes along that is exceptionally easy to read, understand and pass on to a friend, it is worth writing up a short review spelling out the big points. Zucman elucidates his arguments far simpler than I can in a review, his argument is strong and deals with a lot of the headline criticisms. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
However, there will be people who take against the argument and try to ruin it. There a lot of sinister reasons why people might do this, but some people genuinely believe they’re fighting for the same thing as Zucman. Some people think that such a tax would be punitive and scare away citizens. Zucman deals with this point kindly, and suggests a couple of solutions. He also outlines that the risk is worth of the reward in societal terms, arguing that it might be worth risking the flight of those citizens if it means progressive tax systems work the way they were supposed to. Zucman has an internationalist view to this policy, which follows in line of how quickly countries across the world adopted income tax in the first place.
Another kind reason to ruin Zucman’s work is that there are smarter ways of achieving the same goals. Things like a more proportionate Capital Gains Tax, or nationalisation of key industries. Both seem like just as bold swings, but are appealing ideas and if Zucman’s voice is drowned out in favour of either it would still be a victory. What matters is getting to a point where this stuff goes mainstream, and like Britpop before it once that happens people won’t care whether it was Blur or Oasis who got us to the dulcet tones of the Arctic Monkeys. Either way, everyone wins whether that is economically or sonically.
This is a worthwhile read. Even if it is not your cup of tea, it is super short and might tilt you one way or another. It’s designed for everyone for the benefit of mostly all of us. Except Jeff Bezos.
C’est pas forcément d’une grande facilité à la lecture surtout les premières pages qui rentrent dans le dur direct. Mais c’est très interessant, très court et direct et purée dieu sait que c’est nécessaire de faire passer cet impôt plancher. Hâte d’avoir un gouvernement de gauche qui fera passer ça franchement ✨
Good explanation about the tax, and alright explanation abt the evasion of taxes but would’ve wanted more about how exactly holding companies work so I can evade taxes myself
Spørsmålet vi må stille oss, sier franske Zucman, er om det er rimelig at de aller rikeste i verden, i Frankrike, i Norge, betaler ca. 25 % skatt, mens vi vanlige arbeidende betaler mellom 45 % (for de med minst inntekt) til ca. 51 % til middel- og høyinntektsklassen? I boka går han gjennom tallene, og viser hvorfor de aller rikeste, de som tjener ca. 100 millioner USD ("milliardærene") bør betale 2 % av formuen sin. Og så gjør han rede for forskjellen mellom inntektsbeskatning og formuebeskatning. 2 %, forteller han, vil sammen med selskapsskatten i Frankrike (23 %, den er 22 % i Norge) utjevne så det i realiteten vil bli tilnærma 55 % skatt for milliardærene på formuene deres. Det er likhet for loven, mener Zucman.
I etterordet går Andreas Økland, samfunnsøkonom ved Handelshøyskolen, NMBU, inn på norske forhold og snakker varmt om den norske formuesskatten som han mener er blitt veldig god, veldig tilpassa Norge - men også hvordan den kan gjøres bedre.
En bok for alle som er politisk og økonomisk interessert, kanskje til og med filosofisk fordi dette handler om kapitalismen som samfunnsmodell. Lese ut på en kveld ...
D’UTILITÉ PUBLIQUE Zucman nous explique sa proposition de loi visant à imposer les grands milliardaires d’un impôt plancher de 2% sur leurs revenus afin qu’un MINIMUM d’égalité fiscale soit rétablie Tres intéressant il est très fort
Tidvis komplicerat språk. Bra med sammanfattning i slutet. Konkreta exempel på den extremt orättvisa skattepolitiken. Värd att läsa för alla som har ett intresse av välfärd och ekonomisk politik.