Thisismoney - views wanted ASAP

The gesture feels badly misdirected. If wealthy individuals genuinely want to do more good, they can already give substantial sums directly to charities, hospices, food banks, medical research or community projects where the benefit is visible, targeted and immediate.

Calling for another tax instead simply hands more money to a system that already raises and spends enormous sums, yet too often wastes it through inefficiency and poor decision-making. Before demanding that more money is extracted from individuals, the focus should be on making far better use of what the Government already receives.

There is a meaningful difference between helping people directly and calling for the state to take more from everyone else. Those with the means to make a difference do not need a new tax to start doing so.

If you're itching to hand the Treasury more of your money, HMRC will happily take it write a cheque, or leave a gift "to the nation" in your Will. There's no minimum, no upper limit, and no thank you card. And yet almost nobody actually does. Funny, that. Odd how the generosity only works if it's compulsory and applied to everybody, not just the campaigners. If paying more were truly noble, they'd be doing it quietly already, not organising letters. What gives the game away is their certainty that a voluntary version would collect nothing. Deep down they know most people, themselves included, would rather not feed a machine that torches money faster than it collects it. Wanting to pay more tax while knowing it'll be squandered isn't generosity.

Yes, Gary (Lineker and Stevenson) can pay as much tax as they want. The fact this request has been publicised in this way looks like massive virtue signalling.

Perhaps if they pay what they think is appropriate for someone of their level of wealth others will follow suit?

Yes, you can legally give extra money to the Treasury, just not via your tax return. Overpay HMRC on Self-Assessment and it's simply refunded. To hand over more, you must make a formal, non-refundable donation to HM Treasury or the UK Debt Management Office. Kemi Badenoch is right anyone can write that cheque, but voluntary payments are a drop in the ocean, you can't direct where the money goes, and the wealthy overwhelmingly prefer targeted philanthropy to unallocated state spending. Critics rightly call wealth-tax cheerleading pure virtue signalling. Is this the same Gary Lineker who fought HMRC tooth and nail over a £4.9m IR35 bill, now "proud to stand with" those demanding higher taxes on everyone else? You cannot make it up. Shameless Gary can pay voluntarily any time or is this just ‘do as I say, not as I do’? Wealth taxes have a dismal global track record: they don't work, and unintended consequences almost always follow.

The problem with a wealth tax is not finding wealthy people willing to sign a letter; it is designing one that works. Twelve OECD countries levied net wealth taxes in 1990. By 2020, just three still did. The rest abandoned them: they are hard to administer, easy to avoid, and often raise less than expected. Valuing illiquid assets is where these schemes can quickly founder.

Nothing stops anyone who believes they pay too little from leading by example. The Debt Management Office has accepted voluntary donations since 1823: complete a form and the money is used to buy and cancel gilts. But the sums raised are tiny - under £50,000 from the entire country in its best recent year. The facility exists, but it is a collection tin gathering small change next to Britain’s fiscal debt.