It's time for a wealth tax

UK millionaire Stephen Kinsella is proud to pay and here to stay... and says hundreds of high earners agree with him. So what’s the fuss about making the super-rich fork out when it will generate billions and make Britain a better place to live?

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No one can deny the pressure Rachel Reeves is under. In the past few days, the government has committed to a major boost in defence funding, pledged to reinstate the winter fuel allowance to millions of pensioners this winter, and is being asked to abolish the two-child benefit cap. Then there is social housing to fund, education to support and money needed for the NHS and the UK’s growing need for social care.

But how will this all be funded if, as Reeves has indicated, there are no plans to raise taxes to back Labour’s spending plans? One idea that will not go away is a wealth tax – this would be a tiny tax of 2 per cent on wealth over £10m, affecting a mere 20,000 people or 0.04 per cent of the UK population. It would generate a significant sum to the tune of £24bn a year.

Will millionaires leave the UK if there is a change in tax policy that might have an impact on the richest? As a member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, a group actively asking for higher taxes on extreme wealth and the super-rich, I’ve found this pretty hard to believe. My high net-worth friends and I certainly aren’t going anywhere, and the performative panic over it is frankly hard to take seriously.

Why has there been so much fuss made about less than 0.3 per cent of millionaires projected to leave the country when we’re facing the reality of 30 per cent of doctors considering leaving in the next year? It’s a question we had to have an answer to. So much so that we decided to ask the millionaires of Britain themselves what they thought about wealth and taxes.