Close Menu
    Eight in 10 Britons think politicians should publish how much tax they pay
    United Kingdom

    Eight in 10 Britons think politicians should publish how much tax they pay

    Share.
    View 29 Comments

    29 Comments

    1. thereforewhat on

      Surely we’d also have to know how much each politician earns with total income for this to be meaningful?

    3. Hopeful_Stay_5276 on

      Not only this, but every single penny they “earn” from lobbyists, whether as part of a company or an individual, should be published front & centre of an easy to find (and use) website with regular updates.

      Let’s make politics transparent and politicians accountable for any potential undue influences.

    5. Diligent_Craft_1165 on

      I think I’d prefer to know where they’re getting their income from. How they pay their tax is something for Hmrc to monitor. Just seeing their tax bill won’t tell me if Farage is getting millions from bad actors

    6. dyltheflash on

      Seems like an open goal for Starmer to introduce something like that. He needs to position himself as a man of integrity (even though he isn’t) vs Farage the snake oil salesman.

    7. TurnLooseTheKitties on

      Given the level of distrust voters tend to have for politicians, their publishing their financial incomings would go a long way into establishing some trust

    8. AmILukeQuestionMark on

      Democracy depends on transparency and self-correcting mechanisms like free media, courts, and elections. That’s why most Britons want politicians to publish their tax returns.

      Real accountability comes not from speeches but from proof that leaders serve the public, not themselves. And if they don’t, democracy must correct it.

    10. Scrapheaper on

      I hate political witch hunts.

      They just never end. You don’t solve a lack of political trust by throwing people out of power because their accountants fucked up 15 years ago, it only makes the distrust worse

      The real question is how can non-populist politicians build trust with the public so that we get longer term leaders, because it seems that at the moment we have a revolving door of unknowns getting thrown out every 5 minutes.

    11. andrew0256 on

      We should be like Norway and publish everyone’s tax returns. The very highly paid might then be embarrassed into moderating their pay.

    12. 404errorabortmistake on

      i think it should be a % & which tax bracket they are in, rather than an absolute cash value, because with no % it’s impossible to establish whether they are compliant – which is the fundamental issue here

    13. mancunian101 on

      I think there should be a publicly accessible register that shows all income an MP receives and where from, along with how much tax they pay.

    14. C5Galaxy on

      Farage is corrupt and it’s horrific certain people think he’s a man of the people. No backbone. These people push for Rayner to go then happily just sit back as Farage carries on.

    17. Brand-Spanking-New- on

      They should publish their entries finances as transparently as possible. Taxes, assets they own and sources of income. You don’t need figures necessarily, you could problem make brackets thay fit in category 1 and so on, but we should know who gives them money and why.

    18. KernowKermit on

      which taxes? Income tax presumably. NICS? CGT? IHT? SDLT? Council Tax? VAT? IPT? VED? Is it just personal taxes? What if the own businesses? Their businesses corporation tax? Business rates?

    19. Honk_Konk on

      If we are going to be an honest and transparent society I have no issue with this. Consulting professionals to reduce your tax is completely fine, as long as it’s legal. That’s the key.

    20. EnderMB on

      I’ve been saying this for years now.

      Starmer entering No. 10 should have been the catalyst for a codified set of laws governing those in public office. The man fucking LED the CPS, he should know better than everyone how to ensure that there are laws to stop the shite we’ve seen in politics for decades.

      Set up some laws, make them retrospective to ensure that those that fucked around previously get caught, and make him all arrestable offences. Independently audit MP’s finances, public expenditure, and any meetings that happen during their public work. Audit any company that they are associated with, and if anything looks out of place, suspend them for 30 days, with a block during election campaigns.

      Things like the expenses scandal, tax avoidance, cash-for-peerages, lobbying, and even second home scandals would all be a reason for both sacking and potentially jail time. With those in place, alongside transparency for all MP’s, do you think any of them will risk it?

    21. De_Dominator69 on

      All of a politicians finances should be public. Every penny they earn and every source they earn it from, every tax they pay, every purchase they make over a certain value (no reason to care how much they spend on groceries, but their is reason to care if they are buying luxury cars every month, or buying up real estate like candy).

    22. Brave_Ring_1136 on

      They should publish everything about their finances every little detail right down to their prep school class mates

    23. timmarshalluk on

      How much tax they pay is one thing, I’m sure they all maximise what they can put in their pocket, most legally which whilst annoying isn’t really their fault, it’s the crap system we have that is so easly manipulatable.

      What would be more of interest to the general public is what their monies are made up of, ie where the money they pay tax on etc comes from. And to avoid work arounds, whilst in public office they aren’t allowed offshore accounts or to company directors or be in receipt of dividends from companies either.

      If you want to be an MP you should be doing it for the right reasons and not as a means to line your (likely quite full already) pockets.

    24. buster1bbb on

      I’d go further, anyone who’s ever been elected to publish their tax returns until they pass away, then lets see who’s keeping the crooked tax avoidance (while in office) to further their own ends

    25. Rasples1998 on

      The 2 in 10 are the ones dodging tax and don’t want people figuring out their legally illegal grift.

    26. added_value_nachos on

      Yes tax they pay, money from honorary positions, additional incomes and political connections outside of the UK.
      Basically a colonoscopy every year by an independent body that is itself heavily audited by other 3rd parties with no political affiliations because you can’t trust any of these guys.

    27. Hanamafana on

      Every MP should have their finances heavilly audited before / after winning an election and then 10 years after they leave office.

      They need to do something to win back trust and limit their ability to sell the country out.