The Deputy Prime Minister claims many top earners are avoiding taxes by employing an "army of lawyers and accountants".
He signalled he is ready to remove opposition to axing the 50p top rate of income tax - a move that Tory backbenchers and business leaders have demanded - on condition the wealthiest pay their fair share.
In an interview with The Telegraph as the Liberal Democrats meet in Gateshead for their spring conference, Mr Clegg said he believes thousands of millionaires pay tax at a rate of less than 30%.
It comes after prospective US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney admitted he was paying just 13.9% tax on his earnings.
Mr Clegg told the newspaper: "You hope that kind of thing doesn't go on in this country. So I looked into it. There are hundreds of people earning millions per year who are barely paying 20% tax, forget 40%, forget 50%, forget 30%.
"They are not even paying 20%. Therefore, I think it's time that we look at what I call a tycoon tax.
"If you're earning millions per year, if you're able to pay an army of lawyers and accountants to basically pick and choose what tax you are paying, if you are paying as low as 25, 20% or even less in tax, there should be a minimum fair share that you should pay to society.
"It makes people so incredibly angry when you are getting up early in the morning, working really hard to try and do the right thing for your family and for your community, you are paying your taxes and then you see people literally in a different galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of tax."
According to The Telegraph the level could be set between 20 and 30%. Aides said no minimum rate had been laid out but the "problem" is being discussed ahead of the budget.
Mr Clegg added: "I think the principle of a mansion tax is a perfectly sensible one.
"The overall approach to bearing down on avoidance, closing loopholes, making sure the wealthy pay more of their fair share than less - that is what is more important to me at the end of the day."
The Lib Dem leader has put pressure on Chancellor George Osborne to accelerate the rate at which the income tax threshold is raised to £10,000 as the part of his drive to ensure the wealthy pay more.
Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable is expected to renew his assault on top pay at the Lib Dem conference.
He will admit the Government needs to do more to get banks lending to small firms, warning of a "serious risk that recovery will be throttled by lack of finance".
Mr Cable will tell delegates there is "no justification" for the soaring salaries and bonuses handed out over the past decade.
And he will promise to pursue an "active Government" strategy to boost British industry, through initiatives like the Regional Growth Fund, support for apprenticeships and a new approach to Government procurement to ensure that UK companies are considered for major contracts.
He will take on critics by insisting that Government cannot "sit on the sidelines" when it could be taking action to support businesses.
Mr Cable will tell the conference: "In the aftermath of the banking crash there is a serious risk that recovery will be throttled by lack of finance.
"If Britain is to emerge from this dreadful crisis, business needs access to finance, just as plants need water - and the banks aren't supplying it.
"We can get the partly state owned-banks to lend more. This has been done to a degree, but we must do more.
"We can also try to mobilise some new sources of funding - supply chain finance from big companies; business angels and venture capital; pension funds and insurance companies, investors in a potential industrial bank - this has already been happening, but will move faster with Government support."
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