“Finally tax me”: BASF heiress surprises with demand - and wants even more

Created: 01/10/2022, 08:34 AM

From: Bedrettin Bölükbasi

The 29-year-old BASF heiress Marlene Engelhorn wants to give up 90 percent of her inheritance and be taxed at all costs.

© Uwe Anspach / picture alliance / dpa

The BASF heiress Marlene Engelhorn wants to give up 90 percent of her inheritance and is absolutely taxed.

So she wants to make her own contribution against inequality.

Munich - 29-year-old Marlene Engelhorn was born into a family for whom the term “financial difficulties” has been completely alien for several generations.

The Viennese and German studies student is the descendant of BASF founder Friedrich Engelhorn, although her late grandfather Peter was a partner in the Boehringer Mannheim group, which was ultimately sold to the pharmaceutical company Roche for several billion euros.

Thanks to her roots in a wealthy family, it is almost inconceivable for her to find herself in a financial emergency.

Nevertheless, Marlene Engelhorn is interested in a completely different topic than money: equality or the end of inequality.

She wants to give up at least 90 percent of her inheritance in the double-digit millions, be taxed absolutely and thus set an example against inequality.

BASF heiress shoots against inequality: Engelhorn questions large fortunes - "nothing was done for it"

“The money always stays in the hands of a few families.

I was born into the right family myself and I could think that's great.

But I don't do that.

I want to change something, ”Engelhorn told the

and also directly explained the reason for her plan.

According to the 29-year-old, there are people who, with unbelievable wealth, would also inherit unbelievable opportunities and power.

"Like me," she added at this point.

Nothing at all was done for this power.

"It's not fair.

We should urgently talk about how to deal with it, "remarked Engelhorn.

The BASF heiress questions a lot.

“Why do we allow great fortunes to be inherited just like that?

What does a person who is given a certain surname at birth do so much better than another? ”She asked in an interview with the

.

The expression “everyone is the maker of his own happiness” is a big lie.

BASF heiress contradicts “achievement society”: Inequality “endangers democracy” - wealth threshold

To the argument that there are always differences in a performance society, she responded with “What nonsense! What nonsense! ”According to Engelhorn, four out of five people who have a large fortune today received it through an inheritance. “That has nothing to do with performance. It's not okay to hoard money and sit on it, ”she added. Ultimately, this inequality also endangers democracy.

"People have been campaigning for fair distribution and taxation for decades, and the big money lobby has been campaigning against it for at least as long," emphasized Engelhorn.

Not the market economy, but democracy is therefore "the top priority of social coexistence".

She also proposed a threshold for wealth.

Being “over-rich” must be prevented just as much as poverty, because according to Engelhorn, these two factors are “structurally linked”.

According to BASF heiress, nobody is “self-made”: “Tax me now” tax initiative - criticism of the SPD proposal

She vehemently contradicted the term “self-made”, because for Engelhorn there is “no true story of a self-made man or woman in the world”. Nobody is self-made, "not even my BASF ancestor," says Engelhorn. After all, you need a legal system, employees and an infrastructure that are financed by society's taxes. “So society ensures that the founders are doing well. Why should the entire profit go to them only? ”Asked the 29-year-old.

In addition, Marlene Engelhorn wants to be taxed, which is particularly important to her.

With the “Tax me now” initiative, she called for “a wealth tax, the reintroduction of inheritance tax in Austria and the abolition of these strange exceptions for inheritances and gifts in Germany”.

While rich people are asked whether they pay taxes, poor people have to give everything.

“And woe to them, they have a second toothbrush that nobody knows about.

That's crazy! ”Criticized the Austrian.

In doing so, she also set her sights on the SPD's proposal for the reintroduction of a wealth tax.

According to Engelhorn, this would only have affected a minority of 21,000 people and only slowed down the speed at which these people get rich - not enough for the 29-year-old BASF heiress.

She herself is now waiting for future taxation.

"With a bit of luck I will soon be taxed and then enter work as normal, like everyone else," said Engelhorn.

With her demand “finally tax me” she will “get on everyone's nerves for a long time”.