{"id":76504,"date":"2024-06-19T14:44:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T14:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/group-of-austrians-picks-77-charities-to-receive-heiresss-fortune\/"},"modified":"2024-06-19T14:44:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T14:44:08","slug":"group-of-austrians-picks-77-charities-to-receive-heiresss-fortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/group-of-austrians-picks-77-charities-to-receive-heiresss-fortune\/","title":{"rendered":"Group of Austrians Picks 77 Charities to Receive Heiress\u2019s Fortune"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/19\/multimedia\/19xp-heiress-plbc\/19xp-heiress-plbc-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Group of Austrians Picks 77 Charities to Receive Heiress\u2019s Fortune\" title=\"Group of Austrians Picks 77 Charities to Receive Heiress\u2019s Fortune\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After six weekends of deliberating, a group of Austrian citizens this week decided how to divvy up the riches of the heiress Marlene Engelhorn, who is donating the bulk of her inheritance to charity in an attempt to challenge a system that allowed her to accumulate millions of euros.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Guter Rat f\u00fcr R\u00fcckverteilung (\u201cgood council for redistribution\u201d in German), a group of 50 residents in Austria advised by experts, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/guterrat.info\/en\/die-ergebnisse\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">chose 77 organizations<\/a> that would receive money from Ms. Engelhorn\u2019s fortune over the coming years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Engelhorn, 32, made headlines this year when she <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/11\/world\/europe\/austria-heiress-engelhorn-inheritance-giveaway.html\" title=\"\">turned to the public<\/a> to help redistribute her wealth, challenging the lack of inheritance tax in her native Austria. In January, she sent invitations to 10,000 Austrian residents, asking them for help spending 25 million euros (about $26.8 million) of her fortune, which she inherited when her grandmother died. The research group Foresight selected 50 of those residents, from various backgrounds, to form the council.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Each organization will receive an amount ranging from \u20ac40,000 (roughly $43,000) to \u20ac1.6 million ($1.7 million). The groups receiving money include the left-wing think tank Momentum; Attac Austria, an organization that opposes neoliberal economic policy; the social organization World Inequity Lab; climate organizations; human rights groups; and dozens of others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There were some rules in place, according to the council\u2019s website. The money could not be given to groups or people who are \u201cunconstitutional, hostile or inhumane,\u201d and it could not be invested with for-profit institutions. The money also couldn\u2019t be redistributed to group members or \u201crelated parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now that her fortune will be mostly given away, Ms. Engelhorn said in a phone interview Wednesday, she would no longer be able to live off her tax-free wealth. She was planning to enter the work force and pay taxes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, she said, she is still mindful that she is coming from a privileged position, even if the contents of her bank account have gotten smaller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ll always be a privileged person from a wealthy background,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is not changeable or deniable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Prof. Michaela Moser, a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in St. P\u00f6lten, Austria, who served as an expert adviser to the council of 50, said she was impressed by the level of engagement, discussion and \u2014 ultimately \u2014 consensus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The council saw its mission as two-pronged: develop ideas on how Austrian society can deal with the distribution of wealth, and decide how to redistribute Ms. Engelhorn\u2019s 25 million euros.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTwenty-five million \u2014 on the one hand it\u2019s a lot,\u201d Ms. Moser said. But, she added, \u201cthere are many more organizations in Austria and beyond that could be supported.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Engelhorn family\u2019s multibillion-dollar fortune started with Friedrich Engelhorn, who in the 19th century founded BASF, one of the world\u2019s largest chemical companies. Another family company, Boehringer Mannheim, which produced pharmaceuticals and medical diagnostic equipment, was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1997\/05\/27\/business\/roche-plans-an-11-billion-acquisition.html\" title=\"\">sold to Roche for $11 billion<\/a> in 1997.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Engelhorn grew up in a mansion in a chic part of Vienna and has long campaigned for tax policies that would redistribute inherited wealth and address structural economic inequality. Austria abolished its inheritance tax in 2008.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Without any laws in place that would tax Ms. Engelhorn\u2019s inherited fortune, she decided to redistribute it herself, and she turned to the public to decide how her money should be spent. She is part of the group <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/millionairesforhumanity.org\/the-millionaires\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Millionaires for Humanity<\/a>, which advocates wealth taxes, and she co-founded a group called Tax Me Now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before the project was announced in January, Ms. Engelhorn had publicly committed to giving away at least 90 percent of her inheritance. She is part of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/12\/nyregion\/millionaires-tax.html\" title=\"\">a small movement<\/a> of superrich individuals who want to not only redistribute their money, but also to challenge the structures that allowed them to inherit their riches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Besides giving away most of her wealth and \u201cbecoming one of many,\u201d Ms. Engelhorn said she would continue to fight for a more equal and fair distribution of wealth in her country. She said she hoped that she would make other people talk about the issue, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPlease talk about money, everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more people are active in it, the better the results will be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/19\/world\/europe\/marlene-engelhorn-heiress-fortune.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After six weekends of deliberating, a group of Austrian citizens this week decided how to divvy up the riches of the heiress Marlene Engelhorn, who is donating the bulk of her inheritance to charity in an attempt to challenge a system that allowed her to accumulate millions of euros. The Guter Rat f\u00fcr R\u00fcckverteilung (\u201cgood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/19\/multimedia\/19xp-heiress-plbc\/19xp-heiress-plbc-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69282,31221,33614,659,69283,1094,14299],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76506,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76504\/revisions\/76506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}