By the time her extraordinarily wealthy grandmother died last month, Marlene Engelhorn already knew whom she wanted to be the ultimate beneficiary of the enormous inheritance coming her way: the taxman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dream scenario is I get taxed,\u201d said Engelhorn, co-founder of a group called Tax Me Now.<\/p>\n
Engelhorn, a 30-year-old who grew up in Vienna, is part of a growing movement of young, leftist millionaires who say they want governments to take a much larger share of their inherited wealth, arguing that these unearned fortunes should be democratically allocated by the state.<\/p>\n
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Marlene Engelhorn at a Millionaires for Humanity event in Amsterdam in August, where activists were calling for wealth to be taxed.<\/span>Credit:<\/span>New York Times<\/cite><\/p>\n For more than a year, Engelhorn has been campaigning for tax policies that would redistribute her eight-figure windfall \u2014 and anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cI am the product of an unequal society,\u201d Engelhorn said in a speech at a Millionaires for Humanity event in late August in Amsterdam, where activists were calling for wealth taxation. \u201cBecause otherwise, I couldn\u2019t be born into multimillions. Just born. Nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n Her family is no stranger to giving away huge sums. Her grandparents poured a chunk of their fortune into supporting young scientists. Her great-uncle gave millions to an archaeology centre. His cousin pledged nearly $US140 million ($220 million) to classical music.<\/p>\n But in Engelhorn\u2019s view, it should not be the wealthy who get to decide which personal interests and passions deserve their inherited millions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no need for another foundation,\u201d she said as she sat by a canal in Amsterdam. \u201cWhat\u2019s really needed is structural change.\u201d<\/p>\n Philanthropy to her only replicates the same power dynamics that have created the systemic inequalities she wants to see dismantled, with new tax policies for the super rich an essential aspect of that vision.<\/p>\n The Engelhorn family\u2019s multibillion-dollar fortune originated with Friedrich Engelhorn, who about 150 years ago in Germany founded BASF, one of the world\u2019s largest chemical companies. Another family company, Boehringer Mannheim, which produced pharmaceuticals and medical diagnostic equipment, was sold to Roche for $US11 billion in 1997.<\/p>\n \u2018There\u2019s no need for another foundation.What\u2019s really needed is structural change.\u2019<\/p>\n As a partial heir to that fortune, Engelhorn grew up in a mansion in a chic part of Vienna. She attended French-language schools, describing herself as the sort of student who was \u201ccorrecting grammar mistakes when I heard them.\u201d She played soccer with boys and read voraciously. She said she lacked any awareness of class privilege.<\/p>\n When she saw friends living in small appartments, she wondered why they did not choose to live in a big house with a garden, which is \u201cmuch nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPrivilege really gives you a very, very narrow view of the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n At university in Vienna, Engelhorn\u2019s perspective began to broaden.<\/p>\n She volunteered with gay-rights groups and grew interested in the interconnection of racial, gender and economic discrimination.<\/p>\n In early 2020, as Engelhorn sat in a caf\u00e9 in Switzerland, where she had gone to see her grandmother on her 93rd birthday, an accountant told her that upon her grandmother\u2019s death, she would inherit many millions of euros.<\/p>\n He told her to enjoy herself. \u201cHe said, \u2018This is just to be spent,\u2019\u201d Engelhorn recalled. \u201cLike, \u2018Just go play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But to her, the news was more disconcerting than a cause for joy, spurring a tormented reckoning about her place in society.<\/p>\n \u201cI was part of the problem,\u201d she said she remembered thinking. \u201cI am very woke and all, but now: What do I do with all these pretty thoughts?\u201d<\/p>\n As she looked for advice, she entered the orbit of groups of pro-tax millionaires, whose members meet in person or on video calls to discuss their privileges \u2014 and how to get the state to strip them away.<\/p>\n Engelhorn at the activist event in Amsterdam. The inflatable next to her is meant to represent \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d of tax justice. <\/span>Credit:<\/span>New York Times<\/cite><\/p>\n Some of the members call the groups, which include Resource Generation and Patriotic Millionaires, a \u201csafe space\u201d where they can open up about what they call the \u201cmoney story\u201d \u2014 an honest account of the real origins of their social status. They acknowledge the crimes often at the heart of their family\u2019s wealth and analyse the sexist and racist components that might have contributed to it.<\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, the members are expected to share how they are engaged in what they typically term \u201creparations\u201d to society.<\/p>\n Some of these groups emerged in the past 20 years or so, but recently, their memberships have expanded, driven by what Engelhorn calls \u201cnext gens of wealth\u201d who have a different approach than many of their parents. Instead of trying to give away part of their inheritance, they are now asking how it is possible they inherited so much to begin with.<\/p>\n Newspapers have mocked some of the language of these groups, calling it sententious and self-reverential, and Engelhorn complained that some scornful press ridiculed them as \u201crich kids clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n She credits the groups for helping her realise what could be done differently about wealth redistribution. If she had not encountered them, she said, \u201cI might have also just settled with the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is easy to do, she noted, \u201cwhen you can literally afford not to care.\u201d<\/p>\n After joining several of these groups, Engelhorn last year co-founded another one for Central Europe, Tax Me Now, described on its website as \u201can initiative of wealthy people who are actively committed to tax justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Its policy goal is to implement or increase inheritance and wealth taxes (Austria, where Engelhorn lives, abolished its inheritance tax in 2008).<\/p>\n The number of nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxed net wealth dropped from 12 in 1990 to five in 2020. While a higher number of OECD countries tax inheritances, the amount collected accounts for 0.5 per cent of all taxes there.<\/p>\n To Engelhorn, the tax laws mean that it is not just huge amounts of wealth that are handed down; it is power, too, being distributed in a dynastic way. Taxing wealth, she said, would serve the dual purpose of increasing public resources and taking away political sway from people who have not democratically earned it.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that I should be in power or in charge the way that I could be if I use my wealth accordingly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u2018I don\u2019t think that I should be in power or in charge the way that I could be if I use my wealth accordingly.\u2019<\/p>\n After her speech in Amsterdam, Engelhorn was given an award for her activism.<\/p>\n \u201cOf all the rich people\u201d who had spoken at the event, Engelhorn was the one who spoke about the issue of taxation with the greatest passion and honesty, according to Djaffar Shalchi, founder of Millionaires for Humanity. \u201cShe is for me No. 1,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Whatever Engelhorn\u2019s speaking abilities, she has helped generate interest in the issues of wealth and inheritance taxes. She recently published her first book, \u201cGeld,\u201d or \u201cMoney,\u201d about wealth redistribution. And ever since her first public declaration of her desire for her inheritance to be taxed away, she has attracted attention in German-language media.<\/p>\n It is not the first time a member of Engelhorn\u2019s family has made headlines with tax-related issues. When her great-uncle and archaeology donor Curt Engelhorn sold Boehringer Mannheim, German tax authorities did not collect any money because he had previously moved the company\u2019s legal seat abroad.<\/p>\n Marlene Engelhorn\u2019s multiple radio and TV appearances have resulted in dozens of people reaching out to ask her directly for financial help. She said it wrecks her to say no, but she believes it should not be on her to decide who gets her money.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like tax justice to take this impossible decision off my hands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She has committed to giving away at least 90 per cent of her inheritance and wants it to go to the state \u2014 but only in the form of a tax, not a donation. \u201cA government who won\u2019t use wealth taxes won\u2019t get a gift just like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Not all millionaires share her passion for taxing wealth.<\/p>\n Ansgar John Brenninkmeijer, heir to a fashion fortune, interrupted Engelhorn when she was onstage in Amsterdam to ask her angrily if she knew what the wealth tax in the Netherlands was.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have a wealth tax,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s 1.6 per cent,\u201d he added, referring to a Dutch tax on the value of a person\u2019s savings and investments.<\/p>\n To Engelhorn, that was a ridiculously low number.<\/p>\n But later that day, she said it should not be up to people like Brenninkmeijer \u2014 or herself \u2014 to say what is a fair rate.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a rich kid\u2019s place to say,\u201d she said, \u201cwhat the tax should be.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018Just go play\u2019<\/h3>\n
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\u2018Rich kids clubs\u2019<\/h3>\n
\u2018Tax justice\u2019<\/h3>\n