https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67935463
'An Austro-German heiress is setting up a citizens group to decide how she
should give away much of the fortune she inherited from her grandmother.
Marlene Engelhorn, who is 31 and lives in Vienna, wants 50 Austrians to
determine how €25m (£21.5m) of her inheritance should be redistributed.
"I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything
for it," she said.
"And the state doesn't even want taxes on it."
Austria abolished inheritance tax in 2008, one of a handful of European
countries that do not impose inheritance tax - or death duties.
Ms Engelhorn believes that is unfair.
She is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, the founder of German chemical and
pharmaceutical company, BASF, and inherited millions when her grandmother died
in September 2022.
Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto's wealth was estimated by US magazine Forbes at
$4.2bn (£3.3bn; €3.8bn), and even before she died her grand-daughter had
declared that she wanted to hand out about 90% of her inheritance.
On Wednesday, 10,000 invitations targeting randomly selected Austrian citizens
began arriving in letterboxes in Austria.
Those who wish to take part in Ms Engelhorn's initiative, known as the Good
Council for Redistribution, can register online or by phone. From that initial
sample of 10,000 Austrians who are all aged over 16, 50 people will be chosen,
with 15 substitute members also selected in case of dropouts.
"If politicians don't do their job and redistribute, then I have to
redistribute my wealth myself," she explained in her statement.
"Many people struggle to make ends meet with a full-time job, and pay taxes on
every euro they earn from work. I see this as a failure of politics, and if
politics fails, then the citizens have to deal with it themselves."'
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
