# How billionaires get away with paying less tax than you

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-news-agents-5644592/how-billionaires-get-away-with-paying-less-tax-than-you
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-news-agents-5644592/how-billionaires-get-away-with-paying-less-tax-than-you.md
Podcast: [The News Agents](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-news-agents-5644592)
Published: 2026-05-22T15:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/b03cc98f-6a9a-4c14-8e8b-fc36238a3ea3.mp3?aw_0_1st.showid=c49390b9-6909-4cd3-a974-e270cf686f27&aw_0_1st.episodeid=b03cc98f-6a9a-4c14-8e8b-fc36238a3ea3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-news-agents-5644592/episodes/how-billionaires-get-away-with-paying-less-tax-than-you
Duration seconds: 2430

## Resource

As billionaire wealth soars to unprecedented heights, calls to “tax the rich” are getting louder across the world. But while politicians on the left often champion wealth taxes, governments have repeatedly struggled to make them work in practice. So why have they failed? And could that finally be changing? This Friday, Lewis is joined by French economist Gabriel Zucman, the architect of the so-called “Zucman Tax” and one of the most influential voices in the global debate on inequality. Drawing on his new book We Need to Tax Billionaires, Zucman explains how extreme wealth has created what some see as two separate economic realities: ordinary citizens on one side, and a billionaire class operating on an entirely different political and financial plane on the other. From private jets to ballooning fortunes, why have traditional tax systems have struggled to keep up? And could a coordinated global approach to taxing billionaires reshape democracy itself? The News Agents is a Global Production. The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-news-agents-5644592/episodes/how-billionaires-get-away-with-paying-less-tax-than-you/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-news-agents-5644592/how-billionaires-get-away-with-paying-less-tax-than-you.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.