The role of taxes in the fight against inequality in the world, theme of a forum in the Vatican

The Forum, entitled “Fiscal Justice and Solidarity: towards a common, inclusive and sustainable home”, is organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT).

The introduction will be in charge of the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Pope Francis will pronounce a few words before the first debate panel, the ICRICT reported in a statement.

Among the exhibitors are the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Brazilian, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will participate virtually.

The former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and the American economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Prize in 2001 and Co -President of ICRICT, who will do it instead from the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (Pass) will also present.

The objective, according to the organizers on the Vatican agency’s website, is to put on the table how inequality is largely fed by an unfair international fiscal system.

“Fiscal elusion by multinational corporations is one of the most toxic aspects of globalization,” they point out from the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

In that sense, they say that some great corporations, by transferring a part of its benefits to tax havens, “deprive the public sectors of the critical resources necessary to invest in fundamental human rights.”

“This implies an obstacle that makes it even more difficult to address global challenges, such as the fight against climate change, the needs of the most indebted countries and the fulfillment of the sustainable development objectives,” they argue.

They consider that “these are the great problems of world society and we need to propose international reforms to advance fiscal justice through international cooperation.”

In 2022, the Pope already addressed this problem and requested a fiscal system that “must favor the redistribution of wealth, safeguarding the dignity of the poor and the little ones, who are always at risk of being trampled by the powerful.”

The taxes “must be fair” and based on the “capacity of each person to pay,” he said.