Dubai, Italy or perhaps the Bahamas? Many multi-millionaires are discussing where they should flee to as the Rachel Reeves prepares to raid their bank accounts in the ‘Horror Budget’ scheduled for the end of this month. But not, as it turns out, Patriotic Millionaires, the group that campaigns tirelessly for higher taxes on the rich. Its members want Reeves to take more of their money.
The papers are dominated by reports of wealthy entrepreneurs, and the few remaining non-doms, securing a bolt hole somewhere where Reeves will not be able to reach them, but Patriotic Millionaires has a very different message. A report out today, written by IPPR (a think tank) with help from Patriotic Millionaires, argues for equalising capital gains with income tax, which would take the rate up to 45 per cent from the current 20 per cent for most business owners, and could, it argues, raise an extra £14 billion for the Treasury.
Perhaps the Patriotic Millionaires should take a break
Of course, rich millionaires are completely entitled to their views. And they make a fair point arguing that many entrepreneurs and investors are motivated by creating great products and services instead of just money. The trouble is, campaigning for Reeves to raise taxes on the rich, to put it mildly, feels a bit pointless. It is a like suggesting Sir Keir Starmer blags some free Taylor merch. Or that Boris Johnson accepts a free holiday, or that Tony Blair should take up the offer of a private jet from a mining conglomerate somewhere in Uzbekistan. They don’t really need encouragement. Reeves hardly needs people persuading her to put up taxes for the rich – it will happen anyway.
So perhaps the Patriotic Millionaires should take a break. The UK is about to try an interesting experiment in imposing some of the highest marginal tax rates in the world on the mobile wealthy, on business owners, on inheritance, and indeed on anyone with any form of accumulated assets. We will find out very soon if it is right that most of them will cheerfully stay and pay up, or whether they will decide to decamp for the increasing list of countries that offer them a more generous tax regime. In the meantime, instead of pumping out reports arguing for tougher levies, perhaps the Patriotic Millionaires could spend more time persuading their peers to stop calling estate agents in Monaco.
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