A German heiress inheriting billions of {dollars} from her extraordinarily rich grandparents mentioned she was “aggravated” by the incoming fortune and needs practically all of it to be taxed away.
The stunning response from Marlene Engelhorn, of Austria, got here after her grandmother died final month — forsaking the huge sum of cash that got here from the household’s centuries-old chemical firm, the NY Put up stories.
“The dream situation is I get taxed,” the 30-year-old informed The New York Occasions.
Final 12 months, in a profile by Vice Information, Ms Engelhorn informed the outlet in German that “no person ought to have that a lot tax-free cash and energy”.
Ms Engelhorn is the co-founder of a bunch referred to as Tax Me Now, an initiative of prosperous individuals who need wealth to be redistributed by means of better taxes on the wealthy in Germany and Austria.
The heiress particularly advocates for top taxes on inherited wealth as a result of, she says, the cash isn’t earned by the heir and may thus be democratically allotted.
Austria, the place Ms Englehorn resides, opted to abolish its inheritance tax in 2008.
“I’m the product of an unequal society,” Ms Engelhorn mentioned in a speech at a Millionaires for Humanity occasion in late August in Amsterdam. “As a result of in any other case, I couldn’t be born into multi-millions. Simply born. Nothing else.”
Her household’s multibillion-dollar fortune comes from Friedrich Engelhorn’s founding of the chemical firm BASF in 1865. The household’s internet price is estimated to be $US4.2 billion ($6.6 billion), in accordance with Forbes.
Ms Englehorn grew up in a mansion in Vienna and attended French-language colleges, in accordance with the Occasions.
She mentioned she lived a privileged life that supplied a “very, very slim view of the world”.
In school, she gained a brand new perspective and in 2020, she started to consider wealth redistribution upon studying she could be a partial heir to her grandmother’s fortune when she died.
“I don’t assume that I ought to be in energy or in cost the best way that I may very well be if I exploit my wealth accordingly,” Ms Englehorn informed the Occasions.
She mentioned inherited cash ought to be taxed somewhat than donated to a trigger of 1 individual’s pursuits.
“I would love tax justice to take this unimaginable choice off my arms,” she mentioned.
This text initially appeared on NY Put up and was reproduced with permission
Initially printed as Heiress ‘aggravated’ by multibillion-dollar inheritance, desires practically all of it taxed away
