Oxfam welcomes IMF's call to tax the rich to fund COVID-19 recovery

Responding to the publication of the Fiscal Monitor by the International Monetary Fund today, Susana Ruiz, Oxfam International's Tax Policy Lead, said:
 
“Oxfam strongly welcomes the IMF’s call for progressive and emergency taxes to fund the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, including taxing excess corporate profits and top income levels. The pandemic has deepened inequalities —while poverty increased sharply, billionaires globally saw their wealth increase by a staggering $3.9 trillion between March and December 2020.  
 
“We urge the IMF and governments to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. In the decade following the 2008 financial crisis, the burden of taxation shifted dramatically away from the richest and corporate profits to households. This not only worsened inequalities but starved public coffers and pushed countries into further austerity. 
 
“Oxfam’s research shows that 85 percent of the IMF’s COVID-19 loans recommend austerity, including regressive taxation, in the recovery period. This is very worrying and unless the IMF takes its own advice on taxing the rich to reduce the gap between rich and poor, inequalities will continue to increase, and we will not be able to build back better.”