[avgcorrection]

A Captain of Industry who pays a lot in taxes might also indirectly use public goods like roads (for their logistics). They are not some baseline citizen with one white-picket-fence house who contributes above and beyond.

> Celebrating tax contributions and rewarding the contributor (on an opt in basis) could be hugely beneficial for certain types of wealthy individuals. Often times wealthy people enjoy being on these lists as it helps their business, PR, etc. in addition to recognition.

This is irrelevant. Rich people already rule the world. If they want better PR they can just buy it.

You can worship rich people all you want, but it would be for your own pleasure and wouldn't be relevant to the billionaires or whoever it is that we're talking about.

[inglor_cz]

The OP was talking about the top tax payers, which is a specific subset of rich people. Maybe it is a good idea to come up with some soft incentives. Tax collection generally relies on "whip", but "sugar" isn't useless either.

[somethoughts]

Yes - some sugar/recognition/appreciation could go a long way.

Imagine Organization A (i.e. non-profit organization) offers to accept your gift for $N and throws you a gala with you as the beneficiary.

Then imagine Organization B (i.e. the government) forcefully accepts your a gift for $N that you are willing to give regardless of the subtle implied threat of force because you are appreciative of what it does for you and your community but there is no recognition and parts of Organization B are bragging about how they are taking money from you/villifying you and actively being rewarded with promotions for doing so.

I'd imagine most would be more happy with Organization A.

And if one is firmly committed to a "soak the rich" outlook, you can just think of this as a way to massage their ego for free.