German Finance Minister Christian Lindner speaks during the 54th Annual Meeting of The Semafor 2024 World Economy Summit in Washington on April 17.MANDEL NGAN/Getty Images
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner rejected on Thursday Brazil’s proposal to tax the super-rich.
“We do not think it is suitable,” he said at a press conference alongside Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel in Washington. “We have an appropriate taxation of income.”
Brazil, heading the presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20), is aiming to build international consensus on the taxation of wealth this year, and is pushing for a joint declaration at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in July.
Speaking after meeting U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday, Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad answered, regarding Lindner’s opposition to the proposal: “He will change (his mind).”
While Lindner is skeptical about the proposal, his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, has showed support for it.
On Wednesday, Le Maire said that moving to tax the rich was the logical next step for a series of global taxation reforms launched in 2017, including agreement on a global corporate minimum tax.
He said the G20 should aim to reach an agreement on taxing the rich by 2027.