Within the coming days, about 10,000 Austrians will discover an invite of their mailboxes from an heiress asking for his or her assist spending 25 million euros, or about $27.4 million, of her inheritance.
It’s not a rip-off or a intelligent advertising gambit. Moderately, the heiress, Marlene Engelhorn, stated it was an try and problem a system that has allowed her to build up hundreds of thousands of euros within the first place.
Ms. Engelhorn, 31, grew up in Vienna and for years has been campaigning for tax insurance policies that will redistribute inherited wealth and tackle structural financial inequality.
With out these tax legal guidelines in place, she is popping to the general public to determine how her cash needs to be spent.
The ten,000 Austrians who obtain invites might be whittled all the way down to 50, with a aim of reflecting the nation’s inhabitants primarily based on demographics equivalent to gender, age and revenue. The group, referred to as the Guter Rat, or good council, will meet in Salzburg over six weekends this 12 months to debate one of the best ways to spend the cash.
“ plan wants many views,” Ms. Engelhorn stated in an announcement on the undertaking’s web site. “Not simply from one particular person who occurs to have inherited. Just because I want to enhance the state of our society doesn’t imply that I’ve an excellent plan.”
Ms. Engelhorn’s inheritance originated with Friedrich Engelhorn, who based BASF, one of many world’s largest chemical firms, in 1865. Her household additionally owned Boehringer Mannheim, a pharmaceutical and medical diagnostic gear firm, till it was bought for $11 billion in 1997.
Earlier than the Guter Rat undertaking was introduced on Tuesday, Ms. Engelhorn had publicly dedicated to gifting away not less than 90 p.c of her multimillion-euro inheritance. She is a part of a small motion of the superrich who need not solely to redistribute their cash, but additionally to problem the buildings that allowed them to inherit their riches within the first place. Austria abolished its inheritance tax in 2008.
It’s not clear what share of her inheritance Ms. Engelhorn has pledged to the undertaking, whose full identify is Guter Rat für Rückverteilung, or the nice council for redistribution. Bernhard Madlener, a spokesman for the undertaking, stated in an e-mail that it was a “overwhelming majority.”
On Tuesday, the undertaking mailed invites to 10,000 individuals in Austria who have been chosen at random from a nationwide database.
Members have to be not less than 16 years previous, however they don’t have to be an Austrian citizen or communicate German.
The group will meet from March to June for professionally moderated discussions and can hear from specialists on points equivalent to wealth distribution and the best way nongovernmental organizations are funded. There might be 15 alternative members chosen in case somebody can’t attend.
The Guter Rat members might be paid 1,200 euros, or about $1,314, for every weekend. The price of resorts, meals and journey might be coated, as will prices to deal with issues which may forestall individuals from attending, equivalent to little one care and deciphering. The members might be nameless except they select to talk publicly.
There are limits on how the funds could be spent, in keeping with the undertaking web site. The cash can’t go to teams or people who find themselves “unconstitutional, hostile or inhumane,” and it may’t be invested in for-profit establishments. The cash can also’t be redistributed to group members or “associated events.”
If the group is unable to discover a broadly supported solution to distribute the cash, will probably be returned to Ms. Engelhorn.
The bizarre undertaking is a departure from the strategies that some superrich individuals have used to unload their cash, equivalent to by creating foundations for causes they assist or donating it to current teams. Ms. Engelhorn stated that these routes nonetheless gave the rich energy that that they had not earned.
In Ms. Engelhorn’s assertion in regards to the undertaking, she stated that donating cash didn’t “resolve the issue of political failure,” and that it “grants me energy that I shouldn’t have.”
“Redistribution have to be a course of that extends past me,” she stated.
After the Guter Rat is established, Ms. Engelhorn will withdraw from the undertaking and relinquish all decision-making authority, in keeping with the undertaking’s web site.
“In fact, she reserves the fitting to proceed commenting on the subjects of wealth distribution and redistribution, however she has no veto or comparable rights relating to the outcomes of the dialogue within the Council and the 25 million euros,” the web site says. “The Council decides.”
