AIBU to think a 2% wealth tax on the rich is unfair?

[Mrspepperpotpot]

i just saw an article and petition from oxfam saying if we taxed the ‘super rich’ 2% it would solve a lot of problems. They were suggesting 2% on anyone worth 10 million. Everyone in the comments agreed

I just don’t understand this mentality. High earners are hit at every turn. They usually use private health and private schools, pay the most tax, get hit with tax on savings, IHT, land tax, pensions etc etc Why on earth should people earn money to be taxed on it, to then be taxed on it again and again.

Why do people begrudge others having money when they’ve worked extremely hard to get it? Why isn’t there uproar about benefits instead?

I know this will never actually happen but the amount of people who seem to want it to is astonishing

I work stupidly hard at school. I mostly remember from my childhood thinking I was too tired to get up from my homework position and go to bed! Clearly, I did something wrong because I don’t earn much

In the meantime, here is a link to the page where you can pay extra

I think it’s really good if as many people as possible, who want to volunteer to pay extra, do it via this page because it will save a lot of admin. I think there was a guy who ran one of the telecoms company who did this. I forget who it was, but he probably doesn’t own the telecoms company anymore because it was ages ago.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/voluntary-payments-donations-to-government

There are many, many low earning professionals with degrees working long hours and unsociable hours.

Absolutely insane that anyone here is defending not increasing how much the super rich should pay back into society. No one needs hundreds of millions of pounds and being a billionaire is just vile imo. Yes tax the super rich. If every country did the same the world would be a better place

I cannot speak on their behalf ! I do not know. Google suggests they do go after them. Personally I would do all possible to ensure monies owed are paid and paid quickly.
HMRC will have to work within the legislation that applies, I have no idea what that would be but if anything can be done to give them powers to retrieve all faster then it should be done.

No, because it would be a drop in the ocean, but I give to small organisations who can do good work with the money. I would 100% support paying higher tax though, because then it wouldn’t be a drop in the ocean if everyone did it. And it needs to be wealth tax and capital gains. Increasing income tax wouldn’t work because many wealthy people don’t earn income. Although to be fair they did reduce the capital gains allowance to £3k from £12k, which helps a bit, but the rate is far less than income tax which seems backwards to me.

Then you have misread the figures. Because there is no possible way that a single able bodied man could be receiving £2500 per month in benefits. The amount greatly exceeds the legal maximum payable to a person in his circumstances. There is, as I said, a remote possibility of an amount this high if he recieved maximum PIP, both components, and lives in an area where the maximum rent figures covered by benefits are very high, which you confirm he does not. Otherwise, not a chance. His maximum would be under £1000 a month.
Check the benefit calculator and you'll see for yourself. Its important to be accurate about these things as otherwise you just contribute to a lot of misinformation.

I’m a low earner, DH is a high earner.

he works far harder than me. Huge responsibility, long hours, high stress, missed out on a lot of family time.

there is no way our jobs and therefore wage is comparable

What do you mean “ start”?

I have.

I think these very keen super / rich should just start something. There apparently are quite a few signing open letters. Move it on and start a campaign. Voluntary extra tax.

Nothing irks me more than the assumption that wealth comes from 'working extremely hard'. People earning minimum wage also work extremely hard.

My DC are both professionals.

public sector workers are vital
to society

thwy can work as hard as you OP and will never be rich

but we need them/ just because YOU can afford private school, your kids already have a huge jump start and privilege over those who dont

just because you can afford private health, would you be happy to see the nhs disappear?

you need to stop thinking about yourself and think about the bigger picture

Ok so immune so far to Labour’s NI tax hike? Look at the threads on here to see entry level jobs and the impact it’s had.

Darling, I have a measured iq in the top 7% of the population.
What I didn't have was opportunity.

No, I certainly have not “misread” the figures. I have his bank statements and I can read. I am HORRIFIED that he can claim this amount but I can absolutely guarantee that he is and he does. He has, very obviously, lied about having disabilities. And someone, somewhere has believed him enough to sanction this level of payment. And I KNOW it is important to be accurate, do you really think I don’t? I am being accurate, and it is bloody frightening.

If the super rich are being milked dry how have they managed to increase their overall wealth by 16 per cent in 2025 alone, and 81% over the last 5 years?

Public sector employees will never be rich? The CEO of HS2 earns £660k Pa. He is public sector and doing rather well I think.

Dreadful attitude.

Well you can't move your home.
We say colloquially someone can move house. But they can't literally take their 5 bedroom house in the Cotswolds and their London townhouse through customs. So if that comes to over 10 million total it gets taxed. I think the point is people are taxed on their UK assets, we can't do much about overseas assets and it wouldn't be right to tax a UK based person on their London property portfolio but not someone based in Malaysia.

The beauty of taxing multi million property holders is, unlike with income tax or even capital gains tax where high earners can leave and take their tax earning selves away, land is pretty much stuck in the UK. We can and should tax it.

How many public sector workers fall into that bracket? Your argument is wafer thin there. You are clutching at soggy paper straws there.

In these threads there always the chronic low earners which have envy, high earners successful people who are demonised for not wanting to hand it all over to the tax man and the sanctimonious high earners who "want to pay more tax". If you have extra money you can always use it for local targeted charitable efforts.

Labour introduced mansion tax. It really is every meeting who can we tax - McFadden.

100%

I manage investments for wealthy people for a living. Here are 3 reasons why it is absolutely fair and what most people don’t realise:

1.) the effective tax rate is regressive. Add all the taxes and duties you pay as a % of income and the very wealthy pay less than the middle class. They also use investment vehicles for their wealth and collateralise the assets (borrow against them) to offset tax bills.
2.) wealth has boomed as a result of QE (circa £1 trillion) That is taxpayer funded money printing that inflates asset prices. You paid, the richest made a killing on their asset portfolios.
3.) the wealthy can only really keep buying assets with their wealth as they make so much money from money. As long as they do this it will continue to price out the rest of society and in turn hurt consumption. This will hurt small businesses the most.

in short, 2% over £10m is VERY generous imo