A Wealth Tax of just 2% on fortunes over £10 million would be paid by just the 20,000 richest people in the UK. At this modest rate, it would barely register for most of these people. Someone with £11 million would pay just £20,000. And a Billionaire would pay about £20 million. Given the average billionaire’s wealth grew by 16% last year, even with this tax, they’d still have hoarded more wealth in the year than the average person would see in a few thousand lifetimes.
Given this, and the UK’s need for investment, taxing the Super-Rich seems like a no-brainer to most. So, why hasn’t it happened yet? Well, whenever tax reforms like this enter the public conversation you’ll see the billionaire press spring into action with a million bogus reasons why we’re powerless, why nothing will work, why we just have to accept the status quo. And there is no false narrative more pervasive and more ungrounded than the “if you’ll tax them they’ll leave” threat.
So it’s no surprise as we approach the Budget that last week, the papers were wall‑to‑wall with coverage of Chris Rokos. A very (very) rich man who’s decided to move to Greece. Hardly newsworthy — until you force some dots together with wild speculation, slap it across every national newspaper. Then you can use it to scare people out of taxing the rich. What you won’t find in any of these articles shouting that tax rises “chased Rokos away” is evidence. Because he hasn’t said that. Not once. Even Bloomberg (not an outlet known for its inequality campaigning) have questioned the tired tactic.
In reality, people move for all sorts of reasons. Rokos has family roots in Greece. Greece has great food, beaches and weather — five million Brits holiday there every year. There are plenty of reasons someone might want to live there. And given how much tax Rokos has paid year after year, how much he donates to UK charities, and his record gift to Cambridge University, it’s a wild leap to claim he’s divesting from Britain. He’s opening a Greek office, but there’s no sign he’s closing his London one. And there’s no evidence he’s selling his UK properties or assets. So, he’ll likely join others like Eddie Hearn who remain top UK taxpayers despite living abroad.
The billionaire press is using Rokos’ move as another research‑light, supposition‑heavy scare story. But where does that logic take us? Greece lets super‑rich foreigners pay a flat £86,000 tax on overseas income. If Rokos really moved for tax reasons — again, no evidence — should we “compete”? If we matched Greece, it would take over three thousand years for him to contribute what he paid to the UK last year alone. We could join a race to the bottom, but we’d have to beat Dubai’s zero percent income tax. And then what’s the point?
This story reveals just how dangerous inequality has become. One man choosing where to live shouldn’t threaten our national public finances. But because a tiny few hold so much of a country’s wealth, any mention of taxing them sparks panic. Let’s get this straight, the vast majority of the super-rich are here to stay and are proud to pay (we know because when we asked they said so). But of course a greedy few will always follow the money. That shouldn’t scare us into giving them a free ride, it means we should introduce a settling up tax— just like many other countries have— so that those that get rich off the UK aren’t able to dine and dash.
Wealth Creators
The truth is, taxes are not the primary motivator for where people live. People are much more likely to base where they live on connections with family, community, work, and place. And a bargain‑basement Britain with crumbling infrastructure isn’t attractive to anyone: billionaire, millionaire or average earner. If Britain wants investment and thriving businesses, it needs first‑class public services — a healthy, educated workforce, great transport, strong regulations and legal protections.
We’ve had forty years of cowboy economics, from selling off national assets in the 1980s to nearly two decades of austerity. These choices have damaged communities, the economy, and the very fabric of our democracy. At every step, we were told these policies were essential to attract “wealth creators”. Competing with comically low tax rates, turning a blind eye to corporate rip‑offs and letting offshore loopholes flourish doesn’t attract wealth creators; it attracts wealth extractors. And Britain doesn’t need them.
The real wealth creators are the workers, homemakers, nurses, teachers, and yes business owners who’ve built something in Britain, and happily give back to this country (like the 80% of wealthy people polled that support fairer taxation). The upcoming Budget is a chance for the Prime Minister to pick our side, and hand a Budget to the real wealth creators. We’ve given Burnham the treasure map. Now it’s time for him to set a course for a new horizon.