World’s first trillionaire sparks calls for wealth tax on a global scale

This month the world crowned its first ever trillionaire (a one and twelve zeroes, or about five times the GDP of Scotland), as Elon Musk took his SpaceX company public.

It’s cash grabs of a very different variety that have been occupying the minds of people in Scotland however - one of which could mean Musk opts against ever retiring to a cottage in the highlands.

Scotland’s proposed ‘Mansion Tax’ has moved closer with MSPs backing the Scottish Government’s plans to bring in two new council tax bands for properties valued at over £1m and £2m. On the back of that we’ve taken a look at what it might mean for the Scottish economy and whether Scotland might look to bring in a more robust - and more valuable - form of wealth tax.

There’s certainly no shortage of support for the idea of taxing the super-rich, both here and abroad. Minutes after Musk’s fortune soared US politicians were saying it indicated the need for a wealth tax - and this in the home of capitalism.

Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren pointed out that "the typical American household would have to work more than 11 MILLION years to make Elon Musk's level of wealth,” and added simply: “We need a wealth tax."

Senator Bernie Sanders agreed, and has already proposed the bluntly titled "Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act," which would see a 5% annual wealth tax on Americans with a net worth over $1 billion of which there are around 938. If passed the proposals could raise up to $4.4 trillion over a decade - assuming those billionaires don’t decide to up-sticks and take their money elsewhere.

And that’s no small question any new tax can lead to people deciding it will hurt them too much and deciding to go elsewhere, and there are concerns the relative simplicity of moving south of the border could seriously affect how much any mansion tax or private jet tax in Scotland actually raises.

There is also a wider point here though, about how any government can effectively tax the ultra-rich. These are people that have more money to spend on having lawyers and accountants find ways of legally avoiding or minimising any tax liability than a government can spend on enforcing their own taxes.

For example, it took Ireland more than eight years to collect the thirteen billion euros awarded in a court settlement with Apple - and that wasn’t for a contentious wealth tax, it was to pursue an ‘oversight’ in the company’s payment of long-respected ordinary taxes.

Proposals have been put forward for an internationally agreed tax of 2% on all billionaires, something which would stop them simply moving out of whichever individual country was trying to tax them. The problem it faces in getting all of the world’s major economies to agree to it, something which is likely to make it unworkable and unenforceable in practice.

None of this will concern the world’s richest man of course. Musk might be making the headlines with rockets and AI just now, but it was a benchmark month for the electric car industry he has done so much to advance, and we’ve taken a look at whether it now makes more financial sense to go electric when buying a new car.

This month also saw the stunning admission by Peter Murrell that he had embezzled more than £400,000 from the SNP and used it it to buy an assortment of overpriced pens, swish coffee machines (and the luxury beans to go in them) and, of course, the now infamous campervan.

The claims from his estranged wife Nicola Sturgeon that she had no idea about his “betrayal”, despite being pictured using many of the expensive items he had purchased with the stolen goods, left people with a lot of questions.

Whatever the truth - and it’s worth reiterating that Ms Sturgeon has never been charged by the police - there are plenty of other people out there who have been left destroyed by the financial betrayal of a loved one.

Back home the arrival in Westminster of Andy Burnham, the likely PM-in-waiting, could shift the calculations of the Scottish Government on pursuing the powers for a far more robust wealth tax locally.

As he bids to turn around the fortunes of the Labour party, and the country, Burnham has been evasive on pretty much everything, including whether he backs a UK Wealth Tax. Many of the unions backing him are likely to push for such a tax however, and that could make him more open to granting any Scottish requests for more power to tax the rich - although whether they will ask remains to be seen.

For now though it’s likely the rich will just keep getting richer while the rest of us keep paying our taxes and trying to figure out how to make things just a little more equitable.

As Pink Floyd said: “Share it fairly - but don't take a slice of my pie.”