Actor Mark Ruffalo Asks To Be Charged More Taxes

AFP

American actor Mark Ruffalo, 52, known for his role as the Hulk in the Marvel films, joined a call from more than 150 wealthy individuals to be levied with more taxes, coinciding with the World Economic Forum in Davos, this week.

The actor is one of the last signatories of an open letter called “In Tax We Trust”, published for the first time in a virtual press conference in Davos in January, to which one of the heiress to the Disney empire, Abigail Disney.

“While the world has suffered immensely over the past couple of years, we’ve seen our fortunes increase during the pandemic, but few of us, if anyone, can honestly say we’re paying a fair share of taxes,” he said in the updated letter.

The group of “patriotic millionaires” behind the appeal claims that the number of signatories to the letter rose from 100 in January to more than 150 in May.

Its chairman, Morris Pearl, former CEO of financial giant Blackrock, promised in a statement that he “will continue to press world leaders to heed our call: tax the rich before it’s too late.”

However, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann told a conference in the Swiss city on Tuesday that the tax on the rich is less effective than other taxation measures.

“It doesn’t necessarily generate a lot of financial resources,” he said, explaining that “in terms of political effect it is attractive, but in terms of objectives it is not as effective” as other property taxes, for example.

On the other hand, according to Ofxam CEO Gabriela Bucher, “the wealth tax is far-reaching, it has been proven and in some countries it works”.

The NGO campaigns for a one-time solidarity tax on the new wealth acquired by billionaires during the pandemic, with the aim of using the proceeds generated to provide aid to the poorest, awaiting a more permanent tax.