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All together, UK billionaires have 156 billion pounds [1]. Put a 4% wealth tax on that, and you'll get 6.25 billion pounds. You won't even be making their for

All together, UK billionaires have 156 billion pounds [1]. Put a 4% wealth tax on that, and you'll get 6.25 billion pounds. You won't even be making their fortunes smaller, so you could take that amount for forever. The NHS spent 140 billion pounds in 2017 [2], so you would cover 4.5% of the NHS budget just with this wealth tax. That's not insignificant, and we're just looking at billionaires here. UK millionaires own 6.5 trillion pounds [3]. With just a 3% wealth tax, we raise 195 billion pounds, which is a lot more than the NHS budget. So yes, since Richard Branson is not the only rich person, you can tax the rich, let their fortunes still increase by 1% per year, and fund the entire NHS and more. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_billionaires_by_net_worth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_billionaires_b... [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-42572110 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-42572110 [3] https://www.coutts.com/insight-articles/news/2017/how-many-millionaires-are-there-in-the-uk.html https://www.coutts.com/insight-articles/news/2017/how-many-m...

dash2 7y ago
If you take 4% of somebody’s wealth, of course you are making their fortune smaller. Perhaps what you mean is that their fortunes would normally be growing at 4% per year, so overall, they would not decrease. Maybe. I suspect that billionaire’s capital is rather mobile, though.
lazyjones 7y ago
> All together, UK billionaires have 156 billion pounds [1]. Put a 4% wealth tax on that, and you'll get 6.25 billion pounds. You won't even be making their fortunes smaller, so you could take that amount for forever. What a smart and novel idea. Taxing wealthy business owners has worked so well all over the world for years. Let's hope they will never find out about ways to move/split their assets and tax residence.
icu 7y ago
Yes but you're ignoring capital flight. Billionaires and multi-millionaires can just up and leave to more tax friendly destinations. There are actually tax advantaged schemes (EIS and VCT) in the UK to try and funnel money into emerging tech and new businesses. However you would only invest in them if you were extremely wealthy do too the risks involved.
- hakfoo 7y ago
  Capital flight is easily challenged if you have the cojones. Paper assets require a supportive legal framework to transfer them usefully. Imagine creating a blacklist of tax evaders with the sort of teeth we see with, say, the sanctions on Iran/Venezuela/the DPRK. Shut down their economic life until they'll yield a useful cut. Physical assets can't easily be schlepped across national borders without anyone noticing.

dash2 7y ago

If you take 4% of somebody’s wealth, of course you are making their fortune smaller. Perhaps what you mean is that their fortunes would normally be growing at 4% per year, so overall, they would not decrease. Maybe. I suspect that billionaire’s capital is rather mobile, though.

lazyjones 7y ago

> All together, UK billionaires have 156 billion pounds [1]. Put a 4% wealth tax on that, and you'll get 6.25 billion pounds. You won't even be making their fortunes smaller, so you could take that amount for forever. What a smart and novel idea. Taxing wealthy business owners has worked so well all over the world for years. Let's hope they will never find out about ways to move/split their assets and tax residence.

icu 7y ago

Yes but you're ignoring capital flight. Billionaires and multi-millionaires can just up and leave to more tax friendly destinations. There are actually tax advantaged schemes (EIS and VCT) in the UK to try and funnel money into emerging tech and new businesses. However you would only invest in them if you were extremely wealthy do too the risks involved.

hakfoo 7y ago
Capital flight is easily challenged if you have the cojones. Paper assets require a supportive legal framework to transfer them usefully. Imagine creating a blacklist of tax evaders with the sort of teeth we see with, say, the sanctions on Iran/Venezuela/the DPRK. Shut down their economic life until they'll yield a useful cut. Physical assets can't easily be schlepped across national borders without anyone noticing.