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Left-wing activists push for “millionaire tax”

By Howard Jarvis. 25.01.2013

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Signature drive launched for new tax for Latvia’s rich elite

An association called the Left-Wing Patriots has launched a drive for signatures to demand a new tax for Latvia’s rich elite.

Supporters of the idea can visit the website Manabalss.lv and express their support for the petition, demanding that a new fat-cat tax should be introduced quickly in Latvia.

The association believes that the country’s existing tax system is unfair. Its representative Mārtiņš Krusts told the news agency LETA that too much money was being accumulated by the rich, with little or no contributions to the national economy.

Without such a tax, he explained, the state of Latvia was “like a tree without roots.” Not having such a tax in Latvia prolongs the endemic poor emigration, unhealthy demographics, low consumption, high crime rate, bankruptcies of food producers, sluggish development of companies, unemployment, tax evasion and mistrust of public administration, he said.

The new, progressive tax would be levied in households whose accumulated wealth – including real estate, companies they own, vehicles, luxury furniture, yachts, etc. – is estimated at over LVL 1 million. From the ten richest families in Latvia alone, Krusts estimates, LVL 12.42 million could be collected each year, benefiting the country's education and health systems and promoting small business.

Pictured: Ball in colonial Chile, by Pedro Subercaseaux (1880-1956)