After six weekends of deliberating, a gaggle of Austrian residents this week determined divvy up the riches of the heiress Marlene Engelhorn, who’s donating the majority of her inheritance to charity in an try to problem a system that allowed her to build up thousands and thousands of euros.
The Guter Rat für Rückverteilung (“good council for redistribution” in German), a gaggle of fifty residents in Austria suggested by specialists, selected 77 organizations that may obtain cash from Ms. Engelhorn’s fortune over the approaching years.
Ms. Engelhorn, 32, made headlines this yr when she turned to the general public to assist redistribute her wealth, difficult the shortage of inheritance tax in her native Austria. In January, she despatched invites to 10,000 Austrian residents, asking them for assist spending 25 million euros (about $26.8 million) of her fortune, which she inherited when her grandmother died. The analysis group Foresight chosen 50 of these residents, from numerous backgrounds, to kind the council.
Every group will obtain an quantity starting from €40,000 (roughly $43,000) to €1.6 million ($1.7 million). The teams receiving cash embody the left-wing assume tank Momentum; Attac Austria, a corporation that opposes neoliberal financial coverage; the social group World Inequity Lab; local weather organizations; human rights teams; and dozens of others.
There have been some guidelines in place, in line with the council’s web site. The cash couldn’t be given to teams or people who find themselves “unconstitutional, hostile or inhumane,” and it couldn’t be invested with for-profit establishments. The cash additionally couldn’t be redistributed to group members or “associated events.”
Now that her fortune might be principally given away, Ms. Engelhorn stated in a telephone interview Wednesday, she would now not be capable of dwell off her tax-free wealth. She was planning to enter the work power and pay taxes.
However, she stated, she continues to be aware that she is coming from a privileged place, even when the contents of her checking account have reduced in size.
“I’ll all the time be a privileged particular person from a rich background,” she stated. “This isn’t changeable or deniable.”
Prof. Michaela Moser, a lecturer on the College of Utilized Sciences in St. Pölten, Austria, who served as an professional adviser to the council of fifty, stated she was impressed by the extent of engagement, dialogue and — finally — consensus.
The council noticed its mission as two-pronged: develop concepts on how Austrian society can cope with the distribution of wealth, and resolve redistribute Ms. Engelhorn’s 25 million euros.
“Twenty-five million — on the one hand it’s quite a bit,” Ms. Moser stated. However, she added, “there are a lot of extra organizations in Austria and past that may very well be supported.”
The Engelhorn household’s multibillion-dollar fortune began with Friedrich Engelhorn, who within the nineteenth century based BASF, one of many world’s largest chemical firms. One other household firm, Boehringer Mannheim, which produced prescription drugs and medical diagnostic gear, was bought to Roche for $11 billion in 1997.
Ms. Engelhorn grew up in a mansion in a classy a part of Vienna and has lengthy campaigned for tax insurance policies that may redistribute inherited wealth and handle structural financial inequality. Austria abolished its inheritance tax in 2008.
With none legal guidelines in place that may tax Ms. Engelhorn’s inherited fortune, she determined to redistribute it herself, and she or he turned to the general public to resolve how her cash must be spent. She is a part of the group Millionaires for Humanity, which advocates wealth taxes, and she or he co-founded a gaggle referred to as Tax Me Now.
Earlier than the venture was introduced in January, Ms. Engelhorn had publicly dedicated to making a gift of not less than 90 p.c of her inheritance. She is a part of a small motion of superrich people who need to not solely redistribute their cash, but in addition to problem the constructions that allowed them to inherit their riches.
Moreover making a gift of most of her wealth and “changing into certainly one of many,” Ms. Engelhorn stated she would proceed to struggle for a extra equal and truthful distribution of wealth in her nation. She stated she hoped that she would make different folks speak in regards to the challenge, too.
“Please discuss cash, everybody,” she stated. “The extra persons are lively in it, the higher the outcomes might be.”
