Patriotic Millionaires UK Response to Budget - October 2024
“Patriotic Millionaires UK supports the Budget’s priority to invest in our public services and the future of our country. We welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to invest in the UK - but we wish she had grasped the nettle on taxing the super rich.
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Today’s Budget includes encouraging steps toward building a better Britain, with progress on tax reform, including closing inheritance tax loopholes, cracking down on tax avoidance, and abolishing non-dom status. However, this Budget misses a crucial opportunity to ensure that the wealthiest among us—those who can most afford it—contribute fairly. Achieving a fairer, more equitable economy requires deeper structural reforms. This Budget should be seen as the start, not the end, of that effort.
We commend Rachel Reeves’ commitment to urgently invest in our public services to halt their decline. We also welcome the tightening of inheritance tax loopholes that have disproportionately benefited the wealthiest, raising taxes on private jets, along with the reaffirmed commitment to ensure those who live in the UK pay tax here. Yet, today’s announcements fall short of addressing persistent inequities in our tax system. A modest tax on those with over £10 million could have raised £24 billion—a policy Patriotic Millionaires UK would prioritize over other measures introduced today.
Raising the capital gains tax rate is a step forward, but today’s modest increase lacks ambition, failing to address the unfair gap between taxes on work income and wealth income. It remains frustrating that income from work is taxed at higher rates than income from extreme, accumulated wealth. A bolder reform - equalising these rates, alongside base reforms, could have actually reduced the rate paid by the majority of people paying it - see proposed model put forward by CenTax, Oct 24
We, the super-rich, can afford to contribute more—and we believe our wealth should be taxed on par with the income of working people.
To truly meet today’s challenges and build a fairer, stronger nation, we urge the Chancellor to build on today’s momentum by advancing tax reforms that increase contributions from the UK’s wealthiest. We can—and should—pay more, and we would be proud to do so.
