Gabriel Zucman proposes a global wealth tax on billionaires to curb extreme inequality and broaden the tax base.
The proposal addresses the growing concentration of wealth, which Zucman argues poses significant risks to democratic stability and government revenue.
Zucman, a professor at the Paris School of Economics and UC Berkeley, discussed the plan during an appearance on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" program. As the founding director of the International Tax Observatory and author of "We Need to Tax Billionaires," Zucman focuses on how current tax systems fail to capture the wealth of the world's richest individuals [1, 2].
The core of the proposal is a global wealth tax rate of 2% [5]. This mechanism would specifically target unrealised gains—the increase in value of assets like stocks or real estate before they are sold—which currently often escape taxation [1, 3].
By implementing a coordinated global approach, Zucman said the international community could prevent billionaires from shifting assets to tax havens. He said this strategy is necessary to create an unavoidable tax obligation for the ultra-wealthy [5].
Beyond the immediate financial gains for governments, the plan aims to mitigate the democratic risks associated with extreme wealth concentration [4, 6]. Zucman said that broadening the tax base in this manner would allow for a fairer distribution of the tax burden across society [4].
The proposal comes as global discussions regarding tax fairness and corporate minimum taxes continue to evolve. Zucman said that taxing wealth is a primary tool for addressing the systemic gaps in the current global financial architecture [1, 2].
“A global wealth tax rate of 2% would target unrealised gains.”
This proposal represents a shift from taxing income—which is realized upon sale—to taxing the stock of wealth itself. If adopted, it would require unprecedented international cooperation to prevent tax arbitrage, effectively treating global wealth as a single taxable jurisdiction to ensure the ultra-wealthy cannot avoid contributions through residency changes.
