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

Of all the things I think about when I can’t sleep, the plight of the super rich never makes the list. While of course there are plenty of stories of people working hard or coming from nothing, far too often it’s inherited wealth or insane footballer salaries or some sort of dodgy Amazon type company raking in billions while paying no tax. I don’t particularly care if those people end up paying a bit more. Honestly - they almost certainly won’t as they’ll have teams of lawyers and tax dodging specialists on staff.

It is inherently not true that people who are crazy wealthy (you’re talking millionaires here, not CEOs making £300K - insane money for me but still a normal salary in some ways) are working that much harder than a nurse or carer or therapist working with abused children. That isn’t true and is really insulting to say. The world isn’t fair, and it’s not like there’s a calculation - if you work 50 hour weeks you can make 100K, 60 hour weeks and you make £200K. There are plenty of people working insane hours for 30K and plenty of insanely wealthy people who don’t work at all.

So anyone on a low income is lazy? Bin men, nurses, hairdressers?

Held hostage by??!!! These people are already paying their fair share and some!! Get a grip yourself.

You're either a socialist or you're not. That's what will alter your viewpoint on this. Some people are for the many and some are for themselves.

If ypu have £10 million in wealth you probably didnt come by it through being employed. And as such you probably chose to take high profits from a business. It would be far better if grotesque profit margins are not allowed in favour of supporting staff through better wages and conditions. Maybe then people would feel more inclined to do a day's labour and there is more even wealth distribution. No one needs or deserves £10 million with the poverty in this world.

No they would have to sell en masse and Amazon or Tencent would buy the land. We really do not want that.

The data is very clear that in the UK high earners work longer average hours than low earners

Low income isn't lazy but its low income. Do you believe they should all earn the same as a successful business owner with degrees and who works night and day?

High earners work no harder or longer than low earners
If this was true, wouldn't there be million more super rich people?

It doesn't take a genius to conclude that if only a tiny percentage of population make it there, there has to be a good reason, and not all are going to be down to inheritance!

This is the epitome of what is going wrong here. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work and results in lower living standard for everyone and the UK going down the pan, as long as some voters feel a spiteful policy hurts people better off than them.

But you are not the norm among non-high earners. Whereas the vast majority of high earners don't get to leave the office and forget about work or not be expected to check and act on emails, take calls, join conference calls, be away from their families at weekends, miss birthdays, graduations, etc. There will always be exceptions, but we are talking about majorities here. I'm far from a millionaire, although I earn well, and I had to take a client call one the morning of my wedding, while getting my hair and make up done. I physically could, so I did. And I'm not an exception to allow my job to 'bleed' into my personal life. It's very normal among high earners.

That’s not really your choice! These people are very mobile. They can choose to leave. Do you want to make it illegal to choose to leave the country? I think North Korea is the only other state with that policy.

they are but by choosing to go privately for example to the doctor, the dentist, private schools are costing the Government far less money and relieving overburdened systems 🤷‍♀️

But they should have more balanced lives. They sound ill actually.

Do you mean you’re a socialist? How much do you want to take and how would you keep those people here

Once you realise that a 100% tax rate and a 0% tax rate collect exactly the same amount of money, you understand that a careful balance needs to be struck between the state and taxpayers.

The choice of where the wealthiest pay tax has never been easier than now.

I mean the "begrudging" part. Plenty of super rich would not do the proverbial piss on you if you were on fire.

I can think of five of our friends who I think have over £10 million, and all of them worked, made their initial money from their income, but then devoted their evenings, weekends, holiday time to investing their money and growing it further. None of them inherited significant amounts. And they are all employing people on reasonable salaries (in some cases very generous salaries - I know cos I used to work for one!), plus paying taxes, spending money in the UK generally. It would be very very easy for them to simply leave.

Would you do that even if it reduced our tax receipts?

If no, then we can’t really dismiss that as a possibility.

If yes, then we are back to the same three options as before.

Sure. But they are the people who employ the 40 hours a week workers, or pay the taxes to employ them. One of the reasons the UK has fallen so far behind the US economically is that we haven’t had enough obsessive entrepreneurs working ridiculous hours to build successful businesses.

I see nobody has answered my question whether business owners should cut jobs or put up prices to pay for this tax?

The super rich aren't high earners, they're people sat on generations of unearned wealth that just keeps growing whilst the middle class get poorer.

Once people reach a certain level of wealth, it increases passively, meaning they are no longer 'working hard for it'. Nor are they using it to benefit the economy, they can't spend it all, so are hoarding it, while it sucks up more wealth. And its sucking it from the rest of us, meaning they continue to get richer while we get poorer.
You get to a point of wealth when having more of it can't possibly improve your life and having to contribute a small percentage isn't going to make any negative difference to your life either.

“Worked extremely hard? Don’t make me laugh. No one works for the kind of money that has created the wealth of billionaires over the last four decades when everyone else has been impoverished.

What was unfair was bringing the rentier society down on those of us with no hope of family money or support to cushion us. Who worked for nothing except to enrich those who were already well off until we were in our 40s.

It’s time to give back is all.

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/

Often that money isnt in circulation in the uk economy. Its invested in stocks and shares and often mainly in companies overseas. Its often rolled over and over again, gains passed on via trusts, and never actually becomes taxable income.

It doesnt drive economic growth in the UK.

It can be put to better use through taxation. Say its used to pay nurses & teachers more (both are poorly paid in uk vs other countries with pay eroded by inflation). Those people will spend that money here, which puts it into the uk economy where it can circulate and promote job growth.