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wealth tax
'Inequality by Design': EU Billionaire Wealth Soared by Over €400 Billion in 6 Months
“Europe is minting billionaires at a record rate while millions of Europeans are struggling to make ends meet," said one tax expert.
Oct 09, 2025
A worsening inequality crisis in the European Union—where the richest people pay proportionately less tax than ordinary citizens even as billionaire wealth is skyrocketing—is driving increasingly popular demand for a wealth tax, according to a report published Thursday.
The Oxfam briefing paper, A European Agenda to Tax the Superrichch, notes that "the richest 1% in the EU own nearly a quarter of all wealth while half the population shares just 3%."
The report underscores that the combined wealth of EU billionaires soared by over €400 billion ($462.2 billion) in just six months this year—the equivalent of over €2 billion ($2.3 billion) a day.
"In 2025, the EU counted nearly 500 billionaires, 39 more than in 2024," Oxfam said. "In the last year alone, a new billionaire was created, on average, every nine days in the EU. Altogether, the richest 3,600 Europeans now hold as much wealth as the poorest 181 million—equivalent to the populations of Germany, Italy, and Spain combined."
“Europe is minting billionaires at a record rate while millions of Europeans are struggling to make ends meet,” Oxfam EU tax expert Chiara Putaturo said in a statement Thursday. “This inequality is not by accident, it is by design.”
📢 EU Billionaires’ wealth surges by over €400bn in first half of 2025.That’s over €2bn a day.🔗https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/eu-billionaires-wealth-surges-over-eu400-billion-first-half-2025#TaxTheRich
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— Oxfam EU (@oxfameu.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 10:27 PM
As the report notes:
Over recent decades, EU countries have slashed taxes for the richest people and corporations, while leaving ordinary people to pay the price. Today, over 80% of tax revenue in the EU comes from taxes that fall primarily on ordinary citizens, while the wealthiest can exploit loopholes, tax havens, and special regimes to pay lower effective tax rates than nurses and teachers. In Belgium, for example, members of the richest 1% contribute just 23% tax of their incomes, which is half of what the average person contributes.
"Decades of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations resulted in the superrich paying proportionally less taxes than ordinary citizens, eroding fairness, democracy, and social cohesion," the report states. "The EU lacks harmonized policies to curb extreme wealth concentration and tax avoidance of the wealthiest."
"Oxfam calls for bold reforms, such as an EU-wide or national tax on the superrich and transparency mechanisms like an EU assets registry, to fund social needs, climate action, and development," the publication adds. "Taxing the superrich is widely supported, is feasible, and is urgent."
The report contends that an EU-wide wealth tax of up to 5% on millionaires and billionaires could potentially bring in €286.5 billion ($331.3 billion) in yearly revenue, "enough to cover the annual needs of the new EU long-term budget proposal," while ending "harmful and wasteful" tax policies favoring the superrich would recover nearly €4 billion ($4.6 billion) annually.
While wealth taxes have been proposed in a number of European countries, including France—which according to The Economist has more billionaires than any other country in the EU—only Norway, Spain, and Switzerland have enacted a net wealth tax, according to Tax Foundation Europe.
After France's political crisis deepened this week with the resignation of another prime minister, French economist Gabriel Zucman—known globally for advocating for a wealth tax of at least 2%—called out his country's last three PMs for not taking the proposal seriously. He noted that “there is a very strong demand among the population for greater tax fairness and better taxation of the ultrarich.”
France has more billionaires than any country in the EU. A new tax on their income is a popular idea. But doing so might not bring in all that much cash econ.st/4nkboVU
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— The Economist (@economist.com) September 30, 2025 at 8:00 AM
The Equals podcast and Belgian-Dutch philosopher Ingrid Robeyns on Thursday explored the benefits of a wealth cap.
"The idea of a poverty line is pretty well understood. No one should have so little that they can’t afford a roof over their head or go to bed hungry at night," Equals Bulletin said. "But billions of people around the world can’t afford these basics, despite the wealth increase of billionaires over the last decade being enough to end poverty 22 times over."
Embracing the concept of a wealth cap, the publication explained: "It’s about ensuring the needs of people and planet are met so everyone can flourish. You don’t have to be a communist to agree with a wealth cap, nor does it necessarily mean rejecting a market-based economy."
New EQUALS episode is out.We ask, How Much Wealth is Too Much?Philosopher @ingridrobeyns.bsky.social explains why we need a wealth limit & how billionaires are quietly breaking democracy.🎧 Listen here 👉 www.equals.ink/p/how-much-w...
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— EQUALS (@equalshope.bsky.social) October 7, 2025 at 7:42 AM
How much wealth is too much? Equals cited a New Economics Foundation (NEF)/Patriotic Millionaires survey published earlier this year in which one-third of millionaires said that the "extreme wealth line"—the point beyond which their fortune is considered harmful to society and the environment—should be set at $10 million.
"Society needs novel approaches to bring this complex topic to life," NEF's Fernanda Balata and Hollie Wright said at the time, "including narratives and practical tools more apt to address the vast cultural, moral, economic, and social barriers to tackling extreme wealth."
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Top French Economist Says Ex-Prime Ministers Should Have Embraced Wealth Tax
"This blocking attitude is at the heart of the budget crisis and also, as a result, of the current political crisis," said Gabriel Zucman after another French prime minister resigned.
Oct 07, 2025
On the heels of France losing yet another prime minister, Politico on Tuesday published an interview in which world-renowned French economist Gabriel Zucman argued that the recently departed leaders should have supported his proposed wealth tax.
Zucman, who leads the EU Tax Observatory and teaches at French and US universities, has advocated for imposing a wealth tax of at least 2% for the ultrarich in France and around the world. However, Sébastien Lecornu, who resigned as prime minister on Monday, after less than a month in office, did not embrace that approach, the economist noted.
Former Prime Minister François Bayrou also didn't support the "Zucman tax." He was in the post when the French National Assembly voted in favor of a 2% minimum tax on wealth exceeding €100 million, or $117 million, in February—and when the Senate ultimately rejected the policy in June. He resigned in early September, after losing a no-confidence vote.
Before both of them, Michel Barnier was prime minister. He resigned last December, also after losing a no-confidence vote. He, too, didn't embrace the tax policy, despite polling that shows, as Zucman put it, "there is a very strong demand among the population for greater tax fairness and better taxation of the ultrarich."
"The executive has so far remained completely deaf to both parliamentary work and popular democratic demands," Zucman told Politico's Giorgio Leali. "They didn't try to have a real dialogue with the opposition on this."
"The very wealthy individuals affected by this measure, and the media outlets they own, have spoken out very vehemently on the subject in an attempt to discourage the government from engaging in any form of reflection or discussion," he added.
On social media, Leali shared a quote from Zucman tying the former prime ministers' attitudes on the tax proposal and broader budget fight to the country's current political crisis—in which "increasingly isolated" President Emmanuel Macron faces pressure from across France's political spectrum to hold a snap parliamentary election or resign.
As Reuters reported Tuesday, "Resignation calls, long confined to the fringes, have entered the mainstream during one of the worst political crises since the 1958 creation of the Fifth Republic, France's current system of government."
Even Édouard Philippe—who, as France 24 noted, was "Macron's longest-serving prime minister from 2017 to 2020"—is urging him to step down, saying that the president must help France "emerge in an orderly and dignified manner from a political crisis that is harming the country."
After the anti-austerity "Block Everything" protests across France on September 10, Mathilde Panot of the leftist party La France Insoumise (LFI) announced that 100 members of Parliament endorsed a motion to impeach Macron.
LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Monday that "following the resignation of Sébastien Lecornu, we call for the immediate consideration of the motion tabled by 104 MPs for the impeachment of Emmanuel Macron."
"Emmanuel Macron is responsible for the political chaos," he said, calling out "those in power" for failing to respond to not only the demonstrations on September 10 but also the union mobilizations on September 18 and October 2.
"The president is rejected by public opinion, which desires his departure, and he has lost the support of ALL the parties in his political coalition," Mélenchon added Tuesday. "Why does he remain? A return to coherence for the country requires his departure and a return to the voice of the people."
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Progressive Activist Avi Lewis Launches Bid for NDP Leadership in Canada
Lewis said NDP must “fling the doors wide open, and build a party for the 99%.”
Sep 25, 2025
The longtime progressive activist Avi Lewis officially launched his bid for leadership of Canada's New Democratic Party, which he aims to revitalize with a platform of economic populism.
Lewis, a journalist and documentarian whose grandfather helped to found the NDP in 1961, says the way to bring the party back to relevance amid an electoral low point is to “fling the doors wide open, and build a party for the 99%.”
At a kickoff party in Toronto on Wednesday, the former parliamentary candidate from Vancouver railed against the “Liberal-Conservative alliance” that dominates Canadian politics. The two major parties' leaders, Lewis said, "compete fiercely in public, while behind the scenes, they collude to boost corporate profits."
"In the name of protecting the country, the government is rapidly passing and proposing legislation that will change the culture and character of Canada," Lewis said. "From sweeping aside Indigenous rights and environmental protections for so-called nation-building projects, to rolling back higher taxes on the uberwealthy and digital giants, to the generational austerity of 15% cuts to public spending, to the $9 billion that materialized in an instant for the military this year, ramping up to $150 billion a year a decade from now—the changes afoot are extreme."
Lewis pledged to “build a government that is an instrument for the people, not for corporate Canada.”
The NDP—once Canada's third-largest national political party—has been ailing of late after a dismal showing in the nation's most recent parliamentary elections. The party, which held over 100 seats 14 years ago, dropped to a new low of just seven seats in 2025, not enough to even be recognized for committee assignments or federal funding.
The humiliating showing resulted in the resignation of Jagmeet Singh, who'd led the party for eight years, but was widely criticized by those on the left for his coziness with the establishment of the dominant Liberal Party and his failure to keep the NDP competitive. It is in this state of "political wilderness" that Lewis has emerged with an ambitious change agenda.
(Video: Avi Lewis for NDP Leader)
"Life in Canada today feels on the edge," Lewis said in a video released last week announcing his leadership run. "Everyone seeking a little stability, everyone being told 'You're all on your own.'"
He identified several causes of that precarity. One was the "economic attack" from US President Donald Trump, whom Lewis described as sending "disruption grenades" in the form of steep tariffs and annexation threats. But Lewis said that Trump merely "magnifies... the everyday emergency of trying to get by in an impossible economy."
According to one survey conducted in July, 57% of Canadians said their current incomes did not allow them to afford basic necessities like housing, groceries, energy, and cell phone plans.
"Working hard doesn't earn you a living," Lewis said.
"These days, every politician claims to be shocked by the costs," he continued. "What they don't talk about is why: The billions in profits for the tiny group of corporations that control every part of our economy. Three phone providers, three grocery giants, five oil companies, and the five big banks that fund them."
Lewis' plan to confront corporate power is years in the making. Alongside his wife, the acclaimed journalist and author Naomi Klein, Lewis rolled out the Leap Manifesto in 2015 as an agenda for the NDP. Leap focused on confronting the climate crisis, but its contents formed the basis of what he now refers to as a "Green New Deal." The accelerating climate emergency remains at the center of his agenda in 2025.
"Oil and gas CEOs," he said in the video, are "not just hoarding extreme wealth," but "foreclosing on our shared future."
Lewis has never held a parliamentary office, though he has run for a federal Vancouver-area seat twice before and achieved two third-place finishes, receiving 26% of the vote in 2021 and 12.5% in 2025.
In his bid to lead NDP, he has so far leaned heavily into his family legacy and his reputation as a lifelong activist who has "butted heads with the powerful," over issues like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the privatization of healthcare and public transit.
"For four decades," he said, "I have stood with workers, telling stories of working-class heroes and organizing for dignity in factories and fields, classrooms and care homes, shop floors and fishing fleets."
Lewis, who also identified free trade deals as job killers, proposed a "Green New Deal" as a means to revive Canadian industry and create "millions of good-paying jobs."
He has also proposed a wealth tax, a national cap on rent increases, a public option for groceries, and expanded universal healthcare that covers "medication to mental health."
During his speech Wednesday night, Lewis described NDP as "the only party that can accurately diagnose the cause of our everyday emergency, and offer solutions as big as the crises we face."
"The federal government has the power, the resources, and the responsibility to ensure the fundamentals of a good life—healthy food, truly affordable housing, functioning public transit, and hey, maybe a proper vacation once in a while," he said. "But we won’t get it if we don’t fight for it. And that’s where the NDP comes in. After all, the NDP is the original party of workers’ struggle. And in this moment of epic change and uncertainty, the party is needed as never before."
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