If a wealth tax brought in zero revenue to the government, would people still support it? If yes, why?

[percypiggy200]

I’m curious and I’d love to know people’s reasoning.

NOBODY believes it when they say it’s a ‘one off’. Nobody. Ever. This is also a big issue.

I bet. And look at what we rely on v Spain.

Yes - the UK economic system. I read the whole thread at the time and again now.

So, you are good to proceed.

Or do you just mean you are suddenly very busy now you’ve had a think about it?

The IFI only applies if you own property over €1.3million euros - then you pay on the value above €800. You must have a very swish holiday home!

You get a 30% discount on your primary residence. Given how much lower property prices are in France than the UK, it doesn't really hit ordinary people (eg living in a standard family home in Paris) much at all. Certainly nothing like the way the proposed UK one would clobber families in very ordinary homes in the SE.

The other property taxes are very similar levels to council tax, and have a similar purpose.

There's currently no general wealth tax - it's only on property. They might bring a general wealth tax in - France is going through it's own moment of insanity.

Many on this thread sound like they believe the Sheriff’s extortion of Nottingham’s peasantry made great economic sense!

The original thing I'm responding to:
Not sure why randoms think they have a right to even more of other people’s income, savings, investments and assets. If more people were saving and working towards their own lives and their own futures we’d have less interest in grabbing other people’s assets

I think this is very ignorant to basically say that rich people just work hard and poor people should just work harder. It ignores the fact that so much wealth in this country is the result of owning businesses with exploitative practices, being serial landlords where the tenants are the ones actually paying for the buildings.

The line from Hamilton popped into my head a simplistic way to explain the idea that rich people forget they have many assets because of the work of people poorer than them. At the time I was overestimating the kind of people on this thread, since interacting more I would not post it now as I think many wouldn't be able to see what my actual point was. I would've thought it obvious that I'm not directly comparing the modern UK economy to slavery because that would be ridiculous.

However, a lot of generational wealth now is a result of money amassed during that period, so I suppose it is relevant there!

Like the last budget’s grab was a one off?

“We now need to live within the means we have set ourselves,”

“No more tax increases in this Parliament”

Are you that wealthy that this would impact you or you just on the wind up?

IF it happens on property, its on property over £2m, thats not an ordinary family home in the SE.
The 4 bed average detached house price in the SE is around 700k.

Martin Lewis makes a great argument for higher CT on more expensive homes, how to mitigate for the house rich cash poor & reform of debt collection.

Yep

Well, it never "grabbed" much at all of you did it? or anyone else.

It was primarily on Business.

How would you pay for Defence increases? around 250 billion before the next GE, that wasn't even considered pre July GE.

Are you taking the piss? My DH lost his job due to NI increase plus we then had the Education Tax. So yes thanks some of us did get "grabbed"!
The fact unemployment has risen since April ie NI rise shows you the impact. Affecting "just business" impacts on normal people you know.

I agree that comment is so contemptuous, like if 'poor' people weren't so feckless and lazy and tried to be a bit more enterprising, would wouldn't even need a welfare system let alone entertaining the idea of a wealth tax!

You’ll get nada on this. Some must feel immune.

It's the disassociation ie they genuinely believe that impacting business has no wider impact. Zero understanding of cause + effect. It's economic illiteracy.

Public sector workers most likely

It probably feels good to attack the private sector (god knows why some must have dc who want jobs) but it will come back to bite in the form or welfare cuts or other anyway.

Thats sad.

As i said "primarily" and specifically to someone who lives in Dubai but doesn't work.

Private company too.

Recent Job Growth and Initiatives

• 1,500 Early Career Roles: In late 2024, Babcock announced its largest-ever combined intake of 1,500 new early career roles (apprenticeships and graduate programs) to develop future defence and engineering talent.
• 1,000 New Jobs at Rosyth: The company is creating 1,000 new jobs at its Rosyth facility over four years, with 400 of these specifically for apprentices, to support major UK defence programs.
• Overall Economic Contribution: An April 2025 report indicated that Babcock has significantly grown the number of jobs it supports across the UK to 67,000, a substantial increase since 2022.
• Regional Growth: Babcock supports significant employment in key regional economies, including over 12,000 staff in the South West of England (specifically Plymouth) and 5,400 in Scotland.

Perhaps he should change industries as i had too when Austerity made me redundant?

btw, i never worked in the public sector.

@newbluesofa Thanks for replying.

I agree people forget how dependent their fortunes are on each other and on chance, though I think that applies both ways.

I think ‘successful’ people in the rich west should remember their success usually rests on a huge pyramid of society, laws, stable politics, an educated workforce, a prosperous consumer base, etc and the luck of when/where they were born (weedy savant now: tech billionaire. Weedy savant almost any other time: not so lucky).

I think ‘unsuccessful’ people in the rich west should remember they are subsidised and supported by people who aren’t family to a degree unprecedented in human history. Furthermore the systems that are often the target (capitalism, eg) is what has lifted people in their situation historically from absolute penury and starvation.

Either railing too hard against the other always strikes me as historically myopic.

uh? thought Welfare cuts were good?

Hurrah for Babcock

meanwhile…

Employment statistics released by the Office for National Statistics today show businesses shedding jobs at a faster rate following the Government’s National Insurance hike. The data shows 274,000 fewer payrolled employees over the last 12 months, a 0.9% decline.

** When you make it 11% more expensive to hire minimum wage workers, businesses simply stop hiring.

The CBI agree with you. They’re speaking atm.

I live and work here in France having left the uk because I believed Brexit would be bad for the uk economy….

My property is worth over 800k so yes I pay the extra tax. The next jump is 1.3 million euros but I still pay the tax on my property below this level. Again happy to pay.

I’ve always believed in the European model of slightly higher taxes for better services. So now I live in the EU and it benefits from my tax and that of my dh. We are high rate tax payers.

Also our utility bills are half what we were paying in the uk. Water where we are is so cheap it’s virtually free in my bit of France.

Yep. One of the first rules of taxation - if you want less of something, tax it and if you don't, don't.

Reeves chose to tax businesses for employing people.