A wealth tax should be introduced globally or at least at EU level to achieve climate change targets with climate change. This opinion was expressed by the head of the Socialist Party of Belgium, Paul Magnet, in a conversation with the Financial Times newspaper.
„If we want to finance the climate transition, we need money. This money will come from multinational corporations and high net worth individuals. "There really is no other solution," said the politician. In this regard, he called for a “wealth tax, ideally on a global scale or at least on a European level”. Magnet also added that, in his opinion, “the demand for this among the European population is very high.“
In the background of the politician's conversation with the newspaper were disputes between EU member states regarding the sources of defense funding, the costs of which are constantly growing, as well as investment in achieving climate goals. At the same time, some EU countries, including Belgium, violated EU fiscal rules on public spending, the publication explains.
Earlier, the newspaper Politico, citing a European diplomat, reported that EU member states are expressing growing dissatisfaction with the high rate of corporate tax on excess profits, which Belgium plans to receive from the reinvestment of Russian assets frozen on the Euroclear platform. The Belgian leadership has announced that it intends to collect around 1.7 billion euros in the form of this tax just for transactions with Russian assets. At the same time, EU countries, as well as the United States, are calling on Belgium to refuse to tax this profit in order to “maximize aid to Ukraine”.