Taxes on large fortunes generaten 60 cents on ten euros that the Treasury collects in the European Unionwhile consumption and income taxes, which affect the average citizen more, represent eight out of ten euros that reach public coffers, according to an analysis by the NGO Oxfam.
Concretely, in 2022 Wealth taxes represented 5.8% of the collection the Community bloc tax and those applied to capital income, including corporation tax, 16.2% of it.
While, Labor taxes, especially income taxes, accounted for more than half of the amounts collected by the Treasury (50.6%) and consumption taxes, such as VAT, 27.3%, according to the Oxfam study, which uses data from Eurostat and the European Commission. “Taxes that disproportionately affect ordinary Europeans (consumption and labour) generate 13 times more revenue than wealth taxes, which are paid mainly by the super-rich,” the organization said in a statement.
In Spain, the distribution is similar: 50.6% of the collection comes from labor taxes, 25.77% from consumption taxes, 14.9% from taxation of capital income and 8.72% from wealth taxes.
Although the very wealthy also pay income and consumption taxes, these impact the poorest Europeans the mostsince they take a proportionally larger share of their income: unlike the richest, they have fewer alternative sources of income to work and devote a greater part of it to the purchase of essential goods and services, such as food.
Oxfam recalls that in 2022, The richest 1% held a quarter of all personal wealth in the EU and the ultra-rich (some 3,650 people representing 0.001% of the population) have increased their wealth by 237%, and points out that while taxes on this group have been reduced in recent years, those who most affect the average European have increased their wealth
Between the years 2000 and 2023, The average tax rate applied in the EU to the highest incomes fell from 44.8% to 37.9%and the one applied to the largest companies went from 32.1% to 21.2%. However, between 2010 and 2022, the average tax rate on labor income went from 33.3% to 34.8%, and that of consumption rates went from 17.7% to 18.7%, in agreement with the organization.
“The ultra-rich accumulate more than they can spend while avoiding taxes and The rest of us carry most of the tax burden on our shoulders. while we try to make ends meet. A European wealth tax is not only urgent, it is fair,” Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam’s European tax expert, said in a statement.
The organization calculates that a wealth tax of up to 5% for billionaires and billionaires in the EU would bring in 286.5 billion euros per year and promotes a European citizens’ initiative that asks the Community executive to act in this regard, for which they do so. A million signatures are obtained. disappeared, of which 300,000 have been obtained so far. In this sense, Putaturo welcomed the existence of a “growing consensus” in international politics and among citizens on the need to impose taxes on the “super-rich”.
