India Gets Highest Number IMF’s Advice To Tax Lower-Income Households More

While world’s untaxed wealth of the richest 0.1 per cent hidden offshore surpasses entire wealth of the poorest half of the humanity, India remains the receiver of the highest number of the regressive tax recommendations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that increases tax burden on the lower-income households more than high-income earners.

This has been revealed in two separate analyses by Oxfam today on April 2, 2026, just ahead of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. to be held from April 13 to April 18, and ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Panama Papers which were officially leaked and published on April 3, 206 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which had revealed a global network of offshore companies used for tax evasion and money laundering.

Now, a decade later, the Oxfam analysis reveals that the super-rich continue to exploit offshore systems to evade taxes and conceal assets, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated international action to tax extreme wealth and end the use of tax havens. It estimates that $3.55 trillion in untaxed wealth was stashed offshore in tax havens and unreported accounts in 2024.This sum hidden globally is more than twice the combined GDP of the world’s 44 least developed countries.

The richest 0.1 percent people of the world holds approximately 80 percent of all untaxed offshore wealth, or around $2.84 trillion. Within this tiny group, the ultra-wealthiest 0.01 percent holds roughly half ($1.77 trillion).

Christian Hallum, Oxfam International’s Tax Lead, has said, “The Panama Papers pulled back the veil on a shadow world where the richest quietly move immense fortunes beyond the reach of taxes and scrutiny. Ten years on, the super-rich are still sequestering oceans of wealth in offshore vaults.”

“This isn’t just about clever accounting —it’s about power and impunity. When millionaires and billionaires stash trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens, they place themselves above the obligations that bind the rest of society. The consequences are as predictable as they are devastating: we see our public hospitals and schools starved of funds, our social fabric shredded by rising inequality, and ordinary people forced to shoulder the costs of a system rigged to enrich a tiny few,” Christian Hallum added.

While progress has been made in reducing untaxed offshore wealth, it remains stubbornly high at approximately 3.2 percent of global GDP, Oxfam said in its press release. Progress also remains highly uneven: most countries in the Global South are excluded from the Automatic Exchange of Information system (AEOI) despite their urgent need for tax revenue. It is worth noting that the AEOI is credited with reducing the share of untaxed offshore wealth in recent years.

Another analysis by Oxfam, that examined the IMF’s tax advice to 125 countries between 2022 and 2024, says that only 3 percent of the more than 1,000 tax recommendations made by the IMF to governments in recent years focus on taxing wealth and income from wealth.

Despite the rapid growth of extreme wealth ―billionaire wealth has surged by 81 percent since 2020― just 30 of 1,049 tax recommendations focus on net wealth taxes and the taxation of income from wealth, namely capital gains, the Oxfam analysis has found.

Kate Donald, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said, “As billionaire fortunes grow at extraordinary speed, the IMF’s silence on taxing extreme wealth is increasingly untenable.” She also said, “The Fund is reinforcing a system in which ordinary people —already strangled by rising prices— are forced to shoulder the brunt of taxes. Meanwhile, vast concentrations of obscene wealth remain largely untaxed. Serious fiscal reform should start with those most able to contribute.”

The Oxfam analysis exposed two striking discrepancies in IMF guidance depending on a country’s income level. First, 52 percent of tax advice to high-income countries was progressive, while 59 percent of tax advice to low- and lower-middle-income countries was regressive. Secondly, while the IMF publicly acknowledges that tax policy is a critical tool for addressing inequality, it links its tax advice to inequality far more often for high-income countries (34 percent) than low- and lower-middle-income countries (8 percent).

It is here worth noting that a progressive tax system ensures those who have higher income and more wealth pay proportionally more taxes than those who have less. Progressive tax measures like net wealth and capital gains taxes were rarely recommended, and when they were, advice was concentrated in high-income contexts. Also, nearly 90 percent of low- and lower-middle-income countries have medium or high inequality.

The Oxfam analysis found that IMF tax advice to Canada and the United States was overwhelmingly progressive, while advice to South Asia was by far the most regressive, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. India received the highest number of regressive recommendations.

It is worth noting here that the IMF’s regressive recommendations typically refer to tax policy advice – often given to developing nations – that increases the tax burden on lower-income households more than high-income earners. These commonly included pushing for higher Value Added Taxes (VAT) or consumption taxes, cutting tax exemptions, and prioritizing revenue collection over equitable distribution.

The Oxfam analysis says, “In the past 25 years, the gap between the richest 1 percent and the poorest 50 percent has grown in twice as many low- and middle-income countries that received mostly regressive IMF tax advice (25 percent) than in those that received mostly progressive advice (11 percent).”

Ms. Kate Donald said, “The IMF is operating with a troubling double standard that calls into question the evenhandedness it holds as a core principle. It offers mostly progressive tax advice to rich countries, yet its guidance for the rest of the world remains largely regressive. The Fund must provide equally progressive tax advice to all members —or admit its commitment to tackling inequality is merely rhetorical.”

Oxfam’s analysis also found that 10 percent of the IMF’s recommended tax reforms address gender inequality, and most of these references amount to just a few sentences. Overall, more than 90 percent of all IMF tax guidance focuses on tweaking existing measures.

In the context of the unlawful attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States, and Iran’s response, tax policy remains a critical tool for mitigating the impact of surging energy prices, which drive up costs for transport, food, and basic commodities, disproportionately affecting lower-income households. A windfall profits tax on energy corporations, which are poised to earn substantially higher profits, should be systematically included in IMF tax guidance.

Oxfam has called on governments to ensure the richest 1 per cent pay significantly higher effective tax rates on income from both labour and capital, with even higher rates for multimillionaires and billionaires, and end tax havens under the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. It has also urged IMF to systematically place inequality at the heart of all fiscal advice, significantly broaden recommendations for taxing high-net-worth individuals and wealth, while actively supporting measures to curb corporate tax avoidance and harmful competition. (IPA Service)