Gabriel Zucman

And then with whatever remain,

After they've consumed, they can save and they can accumulate more wealth.

But for the billionaires, they earn billions in income, and they can essentially save all of that tax-free.

So you have this snorkeling effect on wealth concentration.

And so there is this kind of doom loop, if you want, where wealth begets power that begets more wealth and so on.

I think what we've realized recently is that all countries essentially are tax havens for billionaires.

They don't have to go to the Cayman Islands.

They don't have to go to Switzerland to avoid paying taxes.

They can do that here in the UK.

They can put their wealth in holding companies, in personal holding companies, and that's going to shelter people.

their income from taxation.

And that happens pretty much everywhere.

That's the main tax avoidance technique that they use.

It's not that they're hiding money in some distant islands.

The tax avoidance is happening here.

What is their wealth?

Their wealth is mostly shares in companies that they own.

And so they put those shares in holding companies, which are kind of shell companies.

And then it's those holding companies that receive dividend income.

And because on paper, the dividends are not earned by physical individuals, they are not subject to the individual income tax.