German heiress, Marlene Engelhorn, wants her billion-dollar inheritance to be taxed at 90 per cent

A German heir said she is ‘annoyed’ that she is set to inherit billions of dollars from her grandparents and said she wants nearly all of her inheritance taxed away.

Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto died in September aged 94, leaving billions of dollars in tax-free inheritance to her granddaughter and heiress, Marlene Engelhorn. 

However, the 30-year-old, who now lives in Austria, said she is not interested in inheriting the windfall that came from the family’s chemical company.

‘The dream scenario is I get taxed,’ Ms Engelhorn told the New York Times. 

Ms Engelhorn has committed to giving away 90 percent of her inheritance and wants the tax to go towards the state for redistribution.

Ms Engelhorn also spoke to Vice News last year and told them: ‘nobody should have that much tax-free money and power.’

Knowing that she would one day inherit the fortune, Ms Engelhorn has spent the last decade campaigning for tax policies that would see her wealth heavily taxed and redistributed by the government.

Ms Engelhorn is the co-founder of Tax Me Now, a group of wealthy people in Germany who are campaigning for greater taxes on their earnings.

Ms Engelhorn told the New York Times that many people have reached out to her to ask for financial help after reading about her campaign or seeing her on TV. She said it pains her to say no because she believes it should be for the state to decide how to redistribute her wealth through tax rather than it being her decision.

‘I am the product of an unequal society,’ Ms Engelhorn said in her speech for the Millionaires for Humanity campaign in Amsterdam in August this year. ‘Otherwise, I couldn’t be born into multimillions. Just born. Nothing else.’

‘The wealth of the so-called top 1% is not just a large number, it directly translates to power over politics, economics, media & society,’ she added. ‘This power is out of proportion: in a democratic society, solidarity concerns us all. Wealth distribution strikes at the heart of democracy.’ 

Marlene Engelhorn, 30, campaigns for higher taxes for the wealthy during a Millionaires for Humanity event in Amsterdam in August 2022.

Austria, where Ms Engelhorn lives, completely abolished its inheritance tax laws in 2008.

Ms Engelhorn wants to see this reintroduced with higher taxes for the wealthy. She argues that it is unfair for affluent people to not contribute to society in this way.

‘I was born into a rich family and will one day inherit a fortune for which I never had to work,’ Ms Engelhorn said in a video posted to Millionaires for Humanity’s Facebook in May 2021.

‘Millionaires should not get to decide whether or not they contribute in a just way to the societies they live in, and without which they would never have become millionaires.

Social justice is in everyone’s best interest. Wealth taxes are the least we can do to take responsibility. Tax us.’

In a video posted by Millionaires for Humanity on their Facebook account in May 2021, Marlene Engelhorn said: ‘wealth taxes are the least we can do to take responsibility.’

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Ms Engelhorn grew up in a mansion in Vienna. She told the New York Times that she attended French-language schools and was the type of student to correct other people’s grammar mistakes. She said she spent her childhood reading and playing football with boys.

She also said she used to wonder why her friends lived in small flats instead of choosing to live in a big house with a garden like she did.

‘Privilege really gives you a very, very narrow view of the world,’ she told the New York Times.

Ms Engelhorn’s windfall inheritance comes from her family’s centuries-old chemical company. Friedrich Engelhorn set up BASF in 1865. The family also owned Boehringer Mannheim, producing pharmaceuticals and medical diagnosis equipment, until it was sold for $11 million in 1997.

Forbes estimated the family’s net worth to be a staggering $4.2 billion.

Despite their wealth, the Engelhorn family have been generous in donating to various philanthropic causes. The Engelhorn family have funded the work of young scientists, archeology centres, and music programs.

The exact figure that Ms Engelhorn will inherit is unknown, as the inheritance may be shared out between other family members.