Dave

Everything was better in the 80s.

[Daniel Priestley @DanielPriestley]

I’m calling BS on these 120 millionaires calling to be taxed more.

Look closely at who signed. A retired footballer whose been paid millions by taxpayers. A retired trader who’s net worth is well under $5M. Retired musicians, film directors and some heirs. People who finished building years ago - half of them aren’t worth the $10M threshold they think needs the wealth tax. Their wealth sits in liquid portfolios. The tax they propose either doesn’t apply to them or they have liquidity to pay it.

Now picture a founder with a £50m biotech firm. Her wealth isn't in a bank account. It's based on a speculative VC round. To pay 2% she has to rip £800k a year out of her business or sell it down piece by piece until someone else owns it.

Or imagine the restauranteur whose chain is finally having a profitable year after a decade of losses. A PE deal to expand gives him a paper worth of £60M and he now has to find £1M a year, every year personally if he wants to grow. 

Imagine the property developer couple who made a lifetime of delayed gratification and good decisions. Their portfolio makes £4M profit which is barely enough to cover the £2M in wealth taxes per year after they draw it from their company and pay the corporation tax - 100% essentially goes to tax.

The signatories aren't offering to pay a tax. They're volunteering someone else to. Someone who is still building, investing, growing, hiring.

HMRC already accepts voluntary payments. Any of these self-aggrandising millionaires could send extra money tomorrow. ALL of them benefited from lower tax rates and should pay the difference if they want to make a start. None of them will. They don't want to give more. They want a law that forces others to.

The wealth tax they propose won't work. It will backfire.

We don't need to guess. In 1990, twelve OECD countries had a wealth tax. Today it's three.

Sweden scrapped theirs. Germany suspended theirs. France tried it for decades, watched tens of thousands of wealthy families leave, collected a fraction of what was promised, and Macron repealed it because the country was losing more than it raised.

The £24bn projection assumes nobody changes their behaviour. Nobody has ever designed a tax where nobody changes their behaviour. Liquid wealth leaves. Illiquid wealth, the businesses and farms and employers, stays behind and gets squeezed.

The tax doesn't catch the guy with the yacht. It catches the guy with the factory.

It will end up hitting normal people.

Every tax "on the very richest" drifts downwards. Income tax started in 1799 as a temporary 3% levy on the richest 3% to fight Napoleon. Now workers are paying a 45% marginal rate. Inheritance tax was designed for stately homes and now catches three-bed semis in Surrey. VAT launched at 8%. It's now 20%.

When the wealth tax raises a fraction of what was promised, and it will, no Chancellor repeals it. They lower the threshold. £10m becomes £5m becomes £2m becomes your parents' house.

Here's what I'd say to the 120…

If you want your capital serving Britain, I'm with you. The best way is to back founders. Fund the startups and scale-ups on great terms like they do in the USA. Help build companies that scale here instead of selling early to America. Growing businesses already pour money into the Treasury through corporation tax, employer's NI and PAYE on every job they create. Back success and productivity. Stop rewarding fiscal deficits with good money after bad.

That's harder than signing a letter. You don’t get to look like a socialist super-hero. It's also the only version of "proud to pay" that's ever made a country richer.

Don't pretend to ask the government to tax you… or people twice as rich as you.

Invest in real growth and success.

[Sunday Sport @thesundaysport]

Millionaires. If you're desperate to give away money, give it to your local hospice.
They do amazing work and will not waste it, like the government will.

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

Because they don't want to pay more tax. They want to virtue signal and force other people to pay more tax.

[Robert Jenrick @RobertJenrick]

Gary Lineker says he wants to pay *more* tax.

That’s funny because three years ago he took Government to court to pay *less* tax on his BBC millions.

Massive hypocrite? Surely not.

[Robert Abel @rj_abel]

Let me get this straight.
An unelected PM with no mandate.
A Deputy PM convicted of fraud.
A Housing Secretary who failed to pay tax.
An Education Secretary who called child exploitation a “dog whistle”.
And a Defence Secretary with no military experience !

Hold Tight ! 🤨

[Sunny @sunnyright]

A prominent, major and mainstream conservative politician in the UK was recently beaten to death with a hammer

Feel like that should probably be getting more attention

[Colin  @atcolin]

For anyone without the time to read it all let me give you the major take away from this.

Fuck the SFA

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

One of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen from a supposed sportsman. Messi’s fake halo shattered in this World Cup; he was the sneaky cheating leader of a vile bunch of violent thugs.

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

This wasn't allowed in public incase it offended anyone. So please don't retweet it. Thanks 🙏https://t.co/1stbtsNZG1

[ᴍᴀɴᴜ. @ESnomanu]

Cucurella le estaba preguntando si todo bien y Messi fue a pedir que le expulsasen.

Es la acción más deshonrosa que he visto en un campo de fútbol y va a perseguir a Messi de por vida.

[Geoff Norcott @GeoffNorcott]

Life comes at you fast.

[MatheusFla @_matheusfla]

Uma das maiores covardias que eu já vi um jogador fazer numa Copa do Mundo. Ainda mais sendo uma final...

Messi tentando cavar uma expulsão do Cucurella do nada.

Que coisa de mau caráter. https://t.co/PnJSuOEaL0

[Hannah @ehannah0]

Pakistan has nuclear weapons and a space program.

They don't need Britain's aid. Yet after refusing to take back their grooming gang ringleader, we just sent them another £153 million.

This is insane.

[Women Won't Wheesht 👩‍🦰 @TheParty1sOver]

@conor_matchett Here he is @DavidDavisMP

[Derek Anderson-The D.A. @derekbwriting]

This will always be one of my favorite scenes in cinema. A Russian defector dreaming about freedom in America. State to state, no papers.
RIP Sam Neill

[Alf @auf]

Obrigado, Sam Neill, por olhar pra uma paisagem vazia com tanta emoção que me fez acreditar, naquela sala escura de cinema em 1993, que dinossauros eram reais

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

322 Labour members of Parliament have nominated Andy Burnham for leader.

He will become PM unchallenged. This is still unacceptable right @DavidLammy?

We need a General Election NOW.