Marlene Engelhorn, a 32-year-old social activist and an heir of the family that originates the chemicals multinational, BASF, made it clear half a year ago that she has no desire to remain a millionaire. She revealed her plan to distribute her inherited wealth of €25 million. A council, comprised of 50 people who were largely strangers to each other, spent six weekends deliberating over how her wealth should be allocated. The suggestions from this council, referred to as the Good Council for Redistribution, encompass supporting Austrian charities through substantial donations. These charities variously focus on aid for homeless people, women in need of refuge, youth services, as well as initiatives working with mentally ill individuals and children considered to be at risk.
The single biggest donation, totalling €1.07 million, will be granted to Attac Austria to support their endeavours toward democratic, social, ecological, and gender-equality reforms within the economy.
This redistribution scheme forms part of the ‘Tax Me Now’ initiative which was launched three years ago by Engelhorn and similar affluent heirs. The campaign aims to reform inheritance tax policies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Engelhorn is particularly pointed about her opposition to the erasure of inheritance tax in her homeland of Austria in 2008, asserting that it threatens democracy due to the consequentially increased dominance of a minority of very wealthy individuals. She argues that if the government is ineffective in ensuring societal wealth redistribution, then alternative actions should be pursued and the issue escalated to the necessary level of attention.
Born in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in 1992, Engelhorn is a direct descendent of BASF’s founder, Friedrich Engelhorn. The fortune she inherited, which is a partition of the approximated €4.2 billion wealth left by her grandmother Gertraud when she passed away in 2022, led to this redistribution journey.
This campaign has spotlighted the concept of tax fairness, particularly in Germany. Here, Engelhorn approximates that inheritance tax is a mere 9% of the €400 billion passed down annually. In addition, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a centre-left organisation in Germany, estimates that roughly €10 billion is lost yearly due to tax regulations favouring the rich. The foundation recently labelled this as Germany’s most substantial tax leniency. Interestingly, although a €50,000 income is taxed at 20%, a €20 million inheritance enjoys an effective tax rate of merely 1% in Germany, as per the foundation’s findings.
The “Tax Me Now” movement indicates that a similar trend can be seen globally. According to the latest report by Oxfam, approximately 45.8 per cent of the world’s total wealth is owned by a mere 1.1 per cent of the population.
Engelhorn, along with other millionaire and billionaire peers, journeyed to Davos last January. Their objective was to urge action from the global leaders assembled for the World Economic Forum.
The Guter Rat für Rückverteilung, in their final report this week, called for additional studies into wealth inheritance and taxation.
Council member, Elisabeth Klein, expressed her desire for a redistribution of wealth that is less aggressive and more transparent, along with a more rational blend of inheritance, gift and wealth tax. She stated that the ultimate goal should be lowering extreme inequality and the work taxes.