More than 100 British-based millionaires, led by Gary Lineker, have written to Andy Burnham urging him to tax their wealth more, telling the new prime minister “we can afford it.”

Independent readers largely agreed, with almost four in five backing a wealth tax on the super-rich in our poll.

But their support in the comments came with a clear condition: close the loopholes first.

Time and again, readers set out what they’d need to see before trusting any wealth tax to work – exit taxes, tighter reporting requirements, and no room for tax advisers to help the wealthy dodge the bill.

Some pointed to modest schemes abroad as proof it can succeed if pitched right, while others questioned why any millionaire needs legislation at all when they could simply donate to HMRC today.

Here’s what you had to say:

Close every loophole first, then tax fairly

A wealth tax is a very good idea but not sufficient on its own. The government need to secure the tax base by legislation to:

A) Make sure that all UK citizens (wherever they choose to live) and all foreign citizens who live and/or own property in the UK are required by law to pay UK taxes unless they can prove that they pay an equal or greater sum elsewhere.

B) Make sure that all forms of wealth of all UK citizens and residents are properly and fully reported and recorded.

C) Levy an exit tax on the wealth of anyone who decides to exit the UK to avoid taxes.

D) Require all tax advisers, accountants and lawyers to be licensed by HMRC to provide tax advice, to obtain prior approval from HMRC for any schemes recommended to clients and to report on all tax avoidance activities by their clients. It is unacceptable that a whole industry of agents and advisers exists for the purpose of helping the wealthy avoid paying their taxes.

Once the tax base is secured then a well-designed, progressive wealth tax could raise a lot of revenue and counteract the rampant increase in inequality that already blights our society and is getting worse.

They could already donate to HMRC if they wanted to

Nothing stops millionaires visiting HMRC’s “Make a tax donation” page and taxing themselves until they are blue in the face. But no. What they really want is for others to get taxed. By the way, £24bn a year would be squandered by the government within months on new HS2s, aircraft carriers that don’t work in warm water, pay rises for train drivers and PPE-like scandals. But the resulting exodus of wealth from Britain would not be reversed for generations.

Start with an exit tax and end the loopholes

Any wealth tax must be targeted at the 20,000 who have wealth in excess of £10m – with NO loopholes for them to squirrel their wealth away.

Start with an exit tax and the ability for HMRC to tax wealth anywhere on the planet. The US of A taxes its citizens wherever they choose to live. And don’t forget to resource HMRC so that it has the staff to do the job.

Look at how Italy makes a modest wealth tax work

Italy uses low tax incentives to attract high-net-worth individuals. But they also have a very modest wealth tax on luxury items (fast cars, yachts, second homes and share investment portfolios). The problem with the UK (and other European countries where wealth taxes have failed) is that they want to levy punitive taxes on wealthy people. They and their assets are generally very mobile. The trick is to charge a modest wealth tax which raises revenue but is low enough that people will wear it.

The super rich are getting wealthier

At a time when the richest 0.001 per cent possess three times the wealth of the poorest 50 per cent globally, something has to be done as all they’re ever interested in is getting even wealthier. There’s bound to be scaremongering from the right-wing press about higher taxes for them, but then it’s all owned by people who fall into the “super rich” category and will use whatever propaganda they can to discourage any such move, naturally. It’s great that Lineker and many others want to contribute extra in taxes, but there are even more who don’t.

This isn’t really a wealth tax, it’s tax equality

The discussion is being framed as a wealth tax, but it could just as easily be referred to as an equalisation of tax rates on earned and unearned income. We have a situation where on the whole the wealthier you are, the lower your effective tax rate is, and that doesn’t seem right. At the other end of the scale, I wonder what the effect would be if we were to abolish VAT (another regressive tax) and at the same time lower the basic rate threshold.

Don’t tax the asset, tax it when it’s sold

Any tax of this sort doesn’t have the thresholds increased over time and people who we wouldn’t dream of paying it now are dragged into it in the future. Also I feel strongly that wealth should be taxed at the time the asset is realised or death. You shouldn’t be taxed for holding an asset. Not everyone uses their assets to generate loans to avoid taxes. Personally I would change capital gains tax so it applied to all house sales not just second homes.

Lineker already fought HMRC and won

I venture to guess that there aren’t many on the list that have sufficient assets to end up paying a wealth tax of 2 per cent on assets over £100m. Just a number of supposed influencers and “jumpers on the bandwagon” that have little intention of paying any more than they have to. Lineker of course fought HMRC (and won) his £4.9m IR35 tax appeal just a few years ago. Maybe he and his co-signatories could start by making voluntary payments to HMRC/Treasury in addition to their “normal tax dues” through the available formal route for such payments on the UK Gov website guidance. They don’t even need to tell us how much they were intending to give extra. Oh right, they’re looking for others to be taxed and they’ll keep their hands firmly in their pockets.

A transaction tax could work just as well

I have seen someone suggest a transaction tax. Set an exempt level so that the less well off don’t get taxed. The more you spend the more you pay. I can’t remember the exact figures but it could raise billions and could even reduce other taxes that disproportionately affect the people on lower incomes.

Go after Amazon and fossil fuels too

Good for them for being principled. Russian oligarchs et al (if not already taxed) should be hit too. Burnham also needs to introduce fair taxes upon companies like Amazon that do not pay what they ought to, and – vitally – justly tax fossil fuel companies for their utterly obscene profits, especially given the environmental and climate damage they have deliberately and consciously caused and continue to cause, whilst thwarting any attempt to curb them.

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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