Pledges to impose a wealth tax are often well received among the public, but would such a policy actually help Brits? Rebecca Gowland of Patriotic Millionaires and Rathbones’ Oliver Jones make the case for and against in this week’s Debate

YES: Our millionaire members say they wouldn’t even notice a two per cent wealth tax

The government currently considers tax policy primarily as a way to raise revenue, but the merit of a wealth tax – and taxing wealth more broadly – goes way beyond this. Yes, the projections show that a two per cent tax on wealth over £10m could generate around £24bn a year – that’s with behavioural change factored in. But the long-term, serious merits of taxing wealth are bigger than this and twofold.

The first is political. Taxing wealth demonstrates to the country that the government is serious about putting ordinary people first. For years tax rises have sat with small businesses and ordinary workers, while the effective tax rate of the richest remains........

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