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Taxing the very rich

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varian Wed 10-Aug-22 16:19:17

In October last year a group of Millionaires petitioned Rishi Sunak to introduce a wealth tax. The open letter demands that recovery from pandemic is not paid for by ‘care workers, street cleaners and teachers .

A group of 30 UK millionaires have called on the chancellor to tax them and other rich people more because they can afford to pay it and “the cost of recovery cannot fall on the young or on those with lower incomes”.

The millionaires told Rishi Sunak to introduce a wealth tax on the nation’s richest people to help pay for the recovery from the coronavirus crisis and tackle the yawning inequality gap.

“We understand the immense pressure on the Treasury to deal with crises both present and future – from inequality, to Covid, to climate change. We know there will be high expectations for you to find the money needed,” the millionaires said in the letter.

“We know where you can find that money - tax wealth holders like us. We can afford to contribute more, and we want to invest in repairing and improving our shared services. We are proud to pay our taxes to reduce inequality, support stronger social care and the NHS, and to ensure that we’re building a more just and green society.”

www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/25/millionaires-petition-rishi-sunak-to-introduce-wealth-tax

Of course this was before the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis. Surely we need to raise taxes on those who can well afford it even more than ever?

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MaizieD Wed 10-Aug-22 16:28:24

Oh, goodness. You'll all know what I'm going to say before I say it, but taxation doesn't fund spending...

OTOH, 'the rich' are the ones who are sucking money out of our domestic economy and making sure that as much of it as possible isn't taxable. This money should be returned to the economy to work for the country and improve the lives of the considerably less well off, not lying idle in a tax haven.

Richard Murphy, who we met on another thread this morning, has a lot to say and some useful links:

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2022/08/09/we-need-to-tax-wealth-more-but-in-the-right-way/

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varian Wed 10-Aug-22 18:06:25

Are you saying Maizie that if taxing the wealth of the very rich could bring billions of extra cash into the government coffers it would not enable them to spend more?

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Katie59 Wed 10-Aug-22 18:17:32

So there are at least 30 rich people with a conscience, the rest probably don’t agree, certainly not to a wealth tax.
There are plenty ways to surcharge income tax, corporation tax, even council tax that targets the wealthy.

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MaizieD Wed 10-Aug-22 18:41:10

varian

Are you saying Maizie that if taxing the wealth of the very rich could bring billions of extra cash into the government coffers it would not enable them to spend more?

I don't think it would make any difference to the spending of, say, a government like our current one, because it's determined cut state funding and enterprise. But for a different government, it could spend more and not have to issue new money to cover its spending and compensate for the money that the rich are draining out of the domestic economy.

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MaizieD Wed 10-Aug-22 18:43:15

Katie59

So there are at least 30 rich people with a conscience, the rest probably don’t agree, certainly not to a wealth tax.
There are plenty ways to surcharge income tax, corporation tax, even council tax that targets the wealthy.

Of course, there are lots of ways to increase the taxation of the rich, But they'd all be labelled as 'wealth taxes' by the squeaking pips grin

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Ilovecheese Wed 10-Aug-22 18:49:21

I suppose those millionaires are not the ones that donate to the Conservative party.

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Chocolatelovinggran Wed 10-Aug-22 18:54:59

It's where it is spent that seems relevant to me. If 10 millionaires have a tax break of 1 million each, that money is unlikely to be at a High Street near you anytime soon. It is like to be squirrelled away in a tax Haven spent on yacht amendments or something of that sort. If 1 million poorer people get a tax break of £10, the economy will be boosted by that sum, as it will be spent in supermarkets, petrol stations, clothing shops etc. Logic - keep tax high for the richest, low for the poorest, and the economy gains.

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