Tax us now, plead 102 millionaires

PARIS: More than 100

millionaires

made an unusual plea on Wednesday: "Tax us now".

Their appeal came as a study backed by wealthy individuals and non-profits found that a wealth tax on the

world's richest people

could raise $2.5 trillion per year - enough to pay for

Covid vaccines

for everyone and pull 2.3 billion people out of poverty.

In an open letter to World Economic Forum's online

Davos meeting

, 102 millionaires, including Disney heiress Abigail Disney, said the current tax system is unfair and "deliberately designed to make the rich richer". "The world - every country in it - must demand the rich pay their fair share," the letter says. "Tax us, the rich, and tax us now."

Their plea follows a report by global charity Oxfam this week which said that the world's 10 wealthiest men doubled their fortunes to $1.5 trillion during the first two years of the pandemic, while inequality and poverty soared. "As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair," says the letter circulated by groups including Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity, Tax me Now, and Oxfam. The signatories include wealthy men and women from the US, Canada, Germany, UK, Denmark, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands and Iran. The Patriotic Millionaires took part in a wealth tax study with a network of non-profits and social movements.

In addition to funding vaccines and alleviating poverty, the tax would be enough to provide universal health care and social protection to 3.6 billion people in low- and middle-income countries, the group said. It said a steeper progressive tax, which includes a 10% levy on billionaires, would raise $3.6 trillion a year. The actual levels of taxation would be country-specific. Wednesday's tax proposal was made as government and business leaders take part in the virtual Davos meeting. The in-person summit was postponed due to the

Omicron variant

.