Majority of Millionaires Supports Wealth Tax
A recent survey by Patriotic Millionaires UK shows that a majority of millionaires in G20 countries supports a 2-percent tax on wealth. When asked if any millionaires with a wealth of more than $10 million should pay the tax, 58 percent of the more than 2,000 millionaire survey participants said yes. As part of the same survey, 75 percent agreed that billionaires should pay the tax.
Between 66 and 69 percent said that those with a household wealth of more than $50 million and more than $100 million, respectively, should pay up. On the other hand, there is still a considerable share of respondents with household investable assets of more than $1 million who think otherwise. Almost a third opposed or was torn about the tax concerning those with a wealth of $50 million or more, while this number was 40 percent concerning those with assets of $10 million or more. Only 11 percent of surveyed millionaires definitely opposed a tax on billionaires, however.
Patriotic Millionaires UK is an organization of more than 60 British billionaires that advocate for the higher taxation of wealth and its fairer distribution. The first advocacy group by the name was founded in 2010 in the United States to lobby for the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts, which were extended under President Barack Obama, however.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2024, 250 millionaires and billionaires actually demanded that global leaders take action to tax very rich individuals but change has not come. According to a 2023 report by Oxfam, only 4 cents of every tax dollar raised globally came from wealth taxes, while half the world’s billionaires lived in countries with no inheritance tax. Support among the public for wealth taxes mirrors that of the millionaire survey. According to Ipsos, Global Commons Alliance and Earth4All, 68 to 70 percent in G20 countries said they were in support of a tax on wealth, on high incomes and on large business profits. Many polls across time and different countries have shown the same results.