The 99.96% Safeguard
One of the most common misconceptions surrounding a wealth tax is that it would eventually apply to ordinary homeowners, family businesses, or people who have simply worked hard and accumulated modest savings.
That is not the proposal referenced throughout this project.
The proposal we discuss is deliberately narrow. It is not a tax on ordinary income, family homes, or typical small businesses. It is a structural proposal aimed exclusively at the largest concentrations of individual net wealth in the United Kingdom.
By proposing a 2% annual tax on individual net wealth exceeding £10 million, the model establishes a substantial safeguard for the overwhelming majority of the population.
It is designed to leave approximately 99.96% of UK residents entirely unaffected, while applying only to the wealthiest 0.04%—around 20,000 people. The objective is simple: reduce the tax burden placed on productive work by asking those with the greatest accumulated wealth to make a proportionate contribution.
This page explains the proposal as accurately as possible using publicly available research, official statistics and published policy analysis. Reasonable people disagree on aspects of wealth taxation. We believe those discussions should begin with a shared understanding of what is actually being proposed.
Who Pays?
The proposal begins at £10 million of individual net wealth.
Expressed visually, its reach is remarkably small.
UNITED KINGDOM POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
99.96% Unaffected ≈ 67.8 million people ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ █
0.04% Above £10 million
≈ 20,000 people
In practical terms, the proposal would affect approximately one person in every 2,500.
The remaining 2,499 people would pay nothing.
This is why we refer to it as The 99.96% Safeguard.
The purpose of the threshold is not simply to define who pays. It is to make explicit who does not.
Why £10 Million?
The threshold is intentionally high.
Its purpose is not symbolic. It is practical.
A Protective Buffer
A threshold of £10 million creates a substantial distance between ordinary household wealth and the point at which the tax would begin.
Lower thresholds would inevitably draw far more households into the system, particularly in regions with high property values. A £10 million threshold is designed to ensure that ordinary homeowners, family businesses and retirement savings remain outside its scope.
Administrative Simplicity
Tax administration becomes significantly more complex as thresholds fall.
Rather than requiring HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to value millions of households, a high threshold concentrates administration on a relatively small number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals. This substantially reduces compliance costs while simplifying enforcement.
Supporters argue that a narrowly targeted system is therefore both more efficient and more economically practical than a broadly applied wealth tax.
Understanding Net Wealth
Public discussion often treats income and wealth as though they are interchangeable.
They are not.
Income is money earned through work.
Examples include:
- Salaries
- Wages
- Bonuses
- Self-employed earnings
Wealth refers to accumulated assets after liabilities have been deducted.
For the purposes of proposals of this kind, net wealth typically includes assets such as:
| Category | Generally Included | Generally Excluded |
|---|---|---|
| Real Estate | Property values (including overseas property) less outstanding mortgage debt | Mortgage liabilities and equity below the threshold |
| Financial Assets | Investment portfolios, private shareholdings, trusts and substantial cash holdings | Ordinary ISA balances and typical workplace pensions below the threshold |
| Business Assets | Equity in privately owned companies and partnerships | Typical small businesses below the threshold |
| Physical Assets | Significant collections, private aircraft, superyachts and other ultra-high-value assets | Ordinary household possessions and everyday vehicles |
Exact definitions depend on the final legislation and valuation rules adopted by Parliament.
What Is Protected?
Because the threshold is set at £10 million, the proposal is designed to protect the overwhelming majority of household wealth.
This includes:
- Ordinary owner-occupied homes, including the vast majority of London properties.
- Typical occupational and private pensions accumulated over a working lifetime.
- Small and medium-sized businesses operating below the threshold.
- Most family inheritances, including ordinary family homes and savings.
- The overwhelming majority of investment portfolios and personal savings.
The proposal is intentionally narrow.
Its purpose is not to broaden taxation.
Its purpose is to concentrate it.
Why Tax Wealth Rather Than Work?
Every tax system creates incentives.
The question is not simply who pays tax, but which forms of economic activity society chooses to reward.
Supporters of wealth taxation argue that productive work should not bear a disproportionate share of funding public services while very large accumulated fortunes are often taxed more lightly than labour income.
Rather than increasing taxes on wages and salaries, they argue that part of the burden should shift towards the largest concentrations of accumulated wealth.
Opponents raise important questions concerning investment, valuation, administration, capital mobility and long-term economic growth.
Those are legitimate areas of debate.
Our purpose is not to settle those debates.
It is to explain the proposal accurately.
Questions Frequently Raised
Is this a tax on a £1 million London house?
No.
The proposal applies only once an individual's total net wealth exceeds £10 million. A £1 million property, even in London, would not itself trigger the tax.
Would high-earning professionals such as doctors or lawyers pay this?
Not necessarily.
High income and high wealth are different concepts. A consultant surgeon earning a substantial salary still falls outside the proposal unless their accumulated net wealth exceeds the threshold.
Does this affect ordinary pensions or savings?
The proposal is designed to leave ordinary pensions, savings and household assets outside its scope.
Would people simply leave the country?
Capital mobility is one of the principal questions explored within the academic literature on wealth taxation.
The policy modelling referenced throughout this project explicitly assumes substantial behavioural responses—including tax planning, avoidance and migration—when estimating potential revenues.
Different researchers reach different conclusions regarding the scale of these effects, which is why this remains an active area of economic research.
Sources & Methodology
We believe serious economic discussion should rest upon transparent and verifiable evidence.
This page draws upon publicly available research and official statistics, including:
Academic Research
- The Wealth Tax Commission (Advani, Chamberlain & Summers, 2020), London School of Economics and University of Warwick.
- Published research by Gabriel Zucman and collaborators on wealth concentration, offshore wealth and progressive wealth taxation.
Official Statistics
Policy Organisations
Where government statistics are reproduced or adapted throughout this website, attribution is provided in accordance with the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
A Living Reference
This page is maintained as a living reference.
Population estimates, thresholds, policy proposals and supporting evidence evolve over time. As official statistics are updated and new research becomes available, this page will be revised to ensure that the information presented by taxwealthnot.work remains accurate, transparent and evidence-led.