Austrian Heiress Is Giving Away Her $27M Fortune — and Wants the Public to Decide Where It Goes

31-year-old Austrian-German activist Marlene Engelhorn, who lives in Vienna, inherited the fortune from her grandmother

An Austrian heiress is giving away her $27 million fortune.

Austrian-German activist Marlene Engelhorn, 31, inherited the fortune from her grandmother, according to the BBC.

However, Engelhorn, who lives in Vienna and is the co-founder of the Taxmenow campaign to combat wealth inequality, is setting up plans to redistribute the inheritance by placing it in the hands of the “Good Council for Redistribution,” which consists of 50 people from the ages of 16 and upwards.

Earlier this week, 10,000 addresses in Austria were randomly selected and sent invitations to apply for membership, per The Times newspaper in the U.K. Applications will require people to complete a short survey before a research institute narrows the applicants to 50, resulting in the sample being representative of the Austrian population.

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“I have inherited a fortune and therefore power without having done anything for it. And the state doesn’t even want to tax it,” Engelhorn said, per The Times. “Meanwhile, many people in full-time jobs were struggling to make ends meet and paying tax on every euro they earned from their labor.”

In 2008, inheritance tax was abolished in Austria.

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“I see this as a failure of political decision-makers,” she added. “It’s not the inheritance that should ensure that I’m doing well in life but the way I contribute to society and the fact that we look after each other in society. But if my birth is the deciding factor, then something is wrong. Because we are not a society that defines people by birth, but a democracy.”

The council is free to donate the entire fortune to one or as many institutions as they desire and they’re also allowed to donate the money in Austria or internationally.

However, they’re not allowed to fund inhumane or unconstitutional activities and they’re forbidden from giving the money to profit organizations or activities that go against redistributing wealth.

Meetings for the council will be held in Salzburg over six weekends where they will be able to receive expert advice on the best ways to redistribute Engelhorn's inheritance.

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Read the original article on People.