Summary

Purpose

The purpose of the World Tax Project is to propose a new mechanism for raising the funds needed to address the sustainable development goals. 

All money raised will be earmarked to sustainable development needs, such as improving education, housing, food security, access to clean drinking water and sanitation, and other global problems being addressed by the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 plan to improve sustainable development. Agenda 2030 is addressing 17 global goals, measured with hundreds of indicators and targets to track progress worldwide. Much more funding is needed to achieve the goals. 

The Problem

Fundraising for global goals to reduce poverty, improve girls education, protect the environment or reduce hunger, always lags far behind the actual need because it depends largely on voluntary contributions from national governments, unsupported by a specific source of tax revenue. Government pledges have not been enough to address global poverty-related goals and they fluctuate based on national politics, making them unpredictable for long-term planning. 

The Solution

The scale of the problems being addressed by the global goals requires a global taxation system that individuals pay. Taxation is how national governments pay for any significant spending program. The lack of a global taxation mechanism to support global sustainable development means that many countries continue to lack the resources they need to invest in the well-being and betterment of their populations. It also means that hundreds of millions of prosperous people, who might want to help solve these problems by contributing more systematically, lack a tax mechanism to redistribute their resources to the people most in need worldwide. 

A Global Income Tax

This project proposes the creation of a simple voluntary global income tax: individuals choose to participate and choose the tax rate they wish to contribute towards global development (e.g. 1% or 0.5%).  

How You Can Help


Project Management 


The World Tax Project is being incubated by members of the McNichol Early Childhood Education Lab at Drexel University. teachESD.org is a related project in that lab expanding access to education for sustainable development (ESD) from early childhood onwards.