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For the US, the logic of engaging in a multilateral treaty was to stop more countries from imposing new taxes, which also created a compliance headache for companies even if their revenue wasn't very high, explained Quentin Parrinello.

Gabriel Zucman, one of the world’s leading experts on global wealth taxation, explained this last Monday at a technical briefing for Danish economists.

Many countries are sitting on large deficits, taxes targeted at the rich raise revenue without inconveniencing the vast bulk of voters, and they serve a useful redistributive function in the face of rising wealth inequality and tax-reduction wheezes employed by the ultra-rich.

It is the French economist Gabriel Zucman who wrote the book "Billionaires Must Pay Tax Too", which caused a huge stir when it was published in France in 2025, and which we here at Dagbladet Information will be publishing shortly.

According to Zucman, recent research from several countries shows that the very wealthiest often pay a lower effective tax rate than the rest of the population. This is partly because a large proportion of their financial income does not appear as ordinary taxable income.

“This is quite a big increase in their tax burden, so they are very vocal about this. They’re very active on social media, and it’s a very international community,” Wouter Leenders.

At the European Tax Observatory launched by economist Gabriel Zucman, models predicted a yield of up to €4 billion. Based on this estimate, the economist advocated a minimum rate of 25%.

A survey by the independent EU Tax Observatory showed that more than 70 per cent of crypto investors do not currently declare their income, confirming that without coordinated regulation and data sharing, realistic compliance with tax rules is difficult to expect.

Pierre Bachas — It is difficult to obtain reliable figures on global tax evasion. Tax optimisation of corporate profits amounts to between 200 and 300 billion dollars each year in terms of lost tax revenue and has changed little in recent years.

Brazil attracts special attention from researchers, as it has one of the most unequal tax systems, ‘if not the most unequal among the major economies,’ according to Zucman.