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

You seem very exercised about this.

Personally, I like Kevin Bridges’ solution. If you are worth more than a certain amount, you are forced to spend any more money earned above that by having it delivered to your house in cash, which means you run out of house space and start throwing cash at things and reinvesting it.

He has a funny sketch on his current tour about Jeff Bezos (whose personal wealth apparently grows by £6 million an hour) getting hourly deliveries in an Eddie Stobart truck, getting frustrated because every time he opens a cupboard, cash bonks him on the head, and eventually pretending not to be in so it’s left with the neighbours.

Won't somebody think of the poor vulnerable billionaires!!!

So the farmer you mention is going to leave the UK if they have to pay 2% on their massive wealth? 😂

Also, there is a difference between being worth £10m and having £10m income. Tax can be applied in many different ways. £10m annual income is very different to £10m in assets and land which contribute to the business. The point at which someone is liable to pay tax is important.

All the high earners I know do. Early starts and late into the evening every day, weekends and whilst on ‘holiday’. How many low earners are working whilst on holiday?

What like nurses, police officers, paramedics, carers, etc, etc.

I work with a fair few high earners and none of them are doing 5 12 hr night shifts a week.

How do you think they will pay 2%? What aspect of their business with paper thin margins and high risk based on weather and market pricing should they downsize? Remember doing so means we as a country will become ever more reliant on importing food in an increasingly precarious world.

Every high earner I know works far more than 60 hours per week.

Which is exactly what happened in the 1970s when there was a 95% tax bracket....British economy suffered because 1000s jobs disappeared especially in the entertainment and music industry.

Wealthy people don't sleep on piles of gold ...their money is in stocks and shares, employees like cleaners and nannies, businesses etc.

Can i suggest a Google of the multiplier effect

Quote " They are being actively solicited by other lower tax jurisdictions who are enjoying strong growth and doing well. Middle income earners don’t deserve to be hit with loads more taxes (which is the inevitable result) - the only short term answer is cutting costs."

What places are doing well with strong growth ? And why is it inevitable that a 2% wealth tax on the top earners hit middle earners ?

Quite

@REDB99 , imagine you are a fairly average couple who’ve reached retirement and live in a 3 bed semi. You’ve paid off your mortgage and have assets totalling 500K. Would you think that being asked to find 10K would be ‘easily affordable’? Or fair?

@Mrspepperpotpot if the super rich felt their 2% was going to help people who genuinely needed help then they wouldn't begrudge it.

But we have a culture of entitlement and benefits where handouts have become a way of life rather than a helping hand.

When you have people willing to risk their lives to get to the UK due to our generous benefit system then that says it all.

We need a change in culture. Perhaps the super rich should get to say where their tax goes and who it helps?

It would not apply to them. Would it.

It's £200, 000 which isn't a lot to a millionaire. There are issues with benefits of course but what isn't fair is that some people have millions while other people are living in poverty many times due to luck or the family they are born into. They don't work any harder than a nurse or a teacher etc so this idea that they work hard for it in many cases is nonsense. If COVID taught us anything, it's that it's the key workers that society completely depend upon not footballers and CEOs.

Oh, not “High earners work SO hard! SUCH long hours! And they have to pay for private medicine and private education! And their mortgages are HUGE!They are just hit at EVERY TURN!” again! If you earn a lot of money you pay a lot of tax. That’s how taxation works. Well, it should. Amazing how it doesn’t for many high earners……

Most of the time massive wealth won't be coming through salary and "hard work", it'll be from investments. Once you've got 5 mill it's not so hard to turn it into 10. You could have done that in the last few years by just sticking it all in an S&P 500 index fund.

We do need to do something about the Monopoly system we have where the wealthy can just keep getting richer by doing nothing while the rest of the population stagnates. I don't know if a wealth tax is going to work though.

Agreed. The rich will simply move elsewhere like Spain or Dubai. They’d be better off tax wise and they can afford the moviing costs. Where as the middle class are stuck here. There are simply too many people on benefits especially immigrants. My job supports illegal immigrants gaining uk status. When they do, most of them claim for UC and PIP for something. They don’t want a job
and cite the language barrier as a reason why they can’t. The polish are the opposite and seem to get jobs straight away. We cannot keep funding immigrants benefits as well. I wish the uk government would change the immigration policy similar to that of the Australian government.

You are going to get hate for this post OP but I’m with you. I am sick to death of hearing ‘tax the rich’ how much bloody more can you tax them!!! There is a difference between Amazon and Starbucks not paying taxes and hard working wealthy people just getting fleeced at every angle. The mega rich just leave the county and it ends up being the upper middle classes that get stung. Honestly they need to look at the bigger picture instead of constantly taking money from the wealthy.

Exactly

I rarely switch off from work; I’m a SENDCo. I spend every day and most evenings supporting children with additional needs and their parents (who often also have additional needs). The stress and responsibility are off the scale, and there is a human cost to every decision. I also teach (track, monitor, direct, support) hundreds of pupils per week.

I don’t get paid millions, and I’m not paid for holidays.

Quote " if the super rich felt their 2% was going to help people who genuinely needed help then they wouldn't begrudge it."

Are you sure about that ?

I have known plenty of people who have been shafted on payments due from a super rich person.

Why is 2% unfair when most pay much higher percentages. The rich get out of paying most of their tax.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is often mistakenly attributed to Marx. It is actually from ancient religious texts and I am happy to support it for a fairer and kinder society.

Before anyone starts casting stones I am a higher rate tax payers and I never try to avoid paying.

“What places are doing well with strong growth ?”
Singapore, Estonian, Bulgaria, UAE are all experiencing high growth and lower taxation.

And why is it inevitable that a 2% wealth tax on the top earners hit middle earners ?

High earners are already moving, there has been an exodus of talent and entrepreneurs are leaving the UK much earlier than they used to when companies hit critical mass to monetise and grow them elsewhere. Many companies including my own don’t mind where I am located and will actively support me to move in the current environment. Inevitably if the Gov taxes higher earners ever more they will continue the exodus. Their contribution towards the 60% of earnings revenues disappears and it has to be made up elsewhere under our current model. Hence the middle earners having to stump up more and more during pretty tough financial conditions like col.

Ik mn is generally tax more especially others but you have to think it through, the IMF gave recent advice on tax rises. It won’t get more £