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A German heir said she is “annoyed” that she is going to inherit billions of dollars from her grandparents and said she wants almost all of her inheritance to be taxed.
Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto died in September at age 94, leaving billions of dollars in tax-exempt inheritance to her granddaughter and heiress, Marlene Engelhorn.
However, the 30-year-old, who now lives in Austria, said she is not interested in inheriting the windfall that came from the family’s chemical company.
“The dream scenario is that I get taxes,” Ms Engelhorn told the… New York Times.
Ms Engelhorn has pledged to give away 90 percent of her inheritance and wants the tax to go to the state for redistribution.
Mrs Engelhorn also spoke with Vice News last year and said to them, ‘Nobody should have that much tax-free money and power.’
Knowing that she would one day inherit the fortune, Ms. Engelhorn has spent the past decade campaigning for tax policies that would heavily tax and redistribute her wealth by the government.
Ms Engelhorn is the co-founder of Tax Me Now, a group of wealthy people in Germany who campaign for higher taxes on their income.
Mrs Engelhorn told the New York Times that many people have asked her for financial help after reading about her campaign or seeing her on TV. She said it hurts her to say no because she believes it should be up to the state to decide how to redistribute her wealth through taxes, rather than it being her decision.
“I am the product of an unequal society,” said Ms Engelhorn in August this year in her speech to the Millionaires for Humanity campaign in Amsterdam. “Otherwise I couldn’t be born in the millions. Newborn. Nothing else.’
“The wealth of the so-called top 1% is not just a large number, it directly translates into power over politics, economy, media and society,” she added. ‘This power is disproportionate: in a democratic society solidarity concerns us all. Wealth distribution touches the heart of democracy.’
Marlene Engelhorn, 30, campaigns for higher taxes for the wealthy at a Millionaires for Humanity event in Amsterdam in August 2022.
Austria, where Mrs Engelhorn lives, completely abolished inheritance tax in 2008.
Mrs. Engelhorn wants to see this reintroduced with higher taxes on the rich. She argues that it is unfair for wealthy people not to contribute to society in this way.
“I was born into a wealthy family and will one day inherit a fortune that I never had to work for,” Ms Engelhorn said in a video posted to Millionaires for Humanity’s Facebook in May 2021.
Millionaires should not be allowed to decide whether or not they contribute equitably to the societies in which they live, and without which they would never have become millionaires.
Social justice is in everyone’s interest. Wealth tax is the least we can do to take responsibility. Tax us.’
In a video Millionaires for Humanity posted to their Facebook account in May 2021, Marlene Engelhorn said, “Wealth tax is the least we can do to take responsibility.”
Mrs. Engelhorn grew up in a town house in Vienna. She told the New York Times that she attended French-language schools and was the type of student who corrected others’ grammatical errors. She said she spent her childhood reading and playing soccer with boys.
She also said she used to wonder why her friends lived in small flats instead of choosing to live in a big house with a yard like hers.
“Privilege really gives you a very, very limited view of the world,” she told the New York Times.
Mrs. Engelhorn’s windfall comes from her family’s century-old chemical company. Friedrich Engelhorn founded BASF in 1865. The family also owned Boehringer Mannheim, which produced pharmaceutical and medical diagnostic equipment, until it was sold for $11 million in 1997.
Forbes estimated the family’s wealth at a staggering $4.2 billion.
Despite their wealth, the Engelhorn family has been generous in donating to various philanthropic causes. The Engelhorn family has funded the work of young scientists, archaeological centers and music programs.
The exact amount that Mrs. Engelhorn will inherit is not known, as the inheritance may be divided among other family members.