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    Labour minister opens door to wealth tax
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    Labour minister opens door to wealth tax

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    1. socratic-meth on

      > Left-wing Labour MPs including Diane Abbott, Richard Burgon and Zarah Sultana have called on Sir Keir to cancel his welfare reforms and impose a wealth tax instead.

      Well I guess if Abbott tells him to do something he should just do it, she usually knows what is best.

    4. snakeoildriller on

      > Ms Reynolds, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, was asked why the UK did not already have a wealth tax

      We don’t want to alienate the donors.

    5. Bigbigcheese on

      I’d welcome a wealth tax for the sole purpose of proving that it won’t work, on the sole condition that it’s sunsetted and expires in 20 years or so.

      Tax inefficient use of land, not illiquid wealth.

    6. not_who_you_think_99 on

      Can someone explain where wealth taxes have worked, and how?
      In Spain it raised a pittance.
      In Norway and France they probably caused a net loss as too many people left.

      I am certainly not happy that I get taxed at a 47% marginal rate while a renter living off capital gains at 24%. But I want an alternative which works

    7. Dashmundo on

      Easily the most fair of all taxes, far more than the ridiculous NI hike. Would help erode the landed gentry elitism of Britain a tiny bit too.

    8. No-Fly-9364 on

      Can anyone who calls for a wealth tax describe in detail what a wealth tax looks like and how a government can actually ensure that it does what it says on the tin?

      We all want the rich to be contributing more to society but very few people seem to have anything other than gut feels in this regard.

      Abbott’s suggestion is this

      >If you brought in a wealth tax of just 2 per cent on people with assets over £10 million, that would raise £24 billion a year. That’s what I would do.”

      But that sounds like very rudimentary maths with a very bold assumption of no one being able to subvert it. The rich have a knack for always being able to make their assets take some other form or location and somehow not count.

    9. helloelloh on

      There is already very little reason to live in the UK for anyone who can afford to move out. Why would you try to reduce that further?

      We’re not such a commodity that people will willingly pay an extra tax to have the luxury of staying here…

    10. bomboclawt75 on

      For the middle class.

      But not for the super rich/ corporations- bar a tiny fraction of 1% from their wealth- just for *window dressing.*

      Everyone should pay the taxes they owe- without fail.

      Anyone using loopholes/ its in my wife’s name and she is based in a tax haven etc… should be charged 10x what they owe- then hounded for any tax they have avoided paying down the previous years.

    11. vishbar on

      Wealth taxes have been tried a lot internationally. They do one of a few things:

      1. Raise little to no income and lead to capital flight—often *decreasing* net revenue
      2. Require cuts to other parts of the tax system (eg CGT) that end up neutering the actual revenues brought in

      Wealth taxes are the Brexit of the left: ideas decried by real economists but promoted by “influencers” like Gary Stevenson and others.

      Brexit should be a lesson: turns out, we *shouldn’t* dismiss what the experts say, because quite often they’re right.

    12. Pogeos on

      So who’s going to pay this tax? Individuals or both individuals and organisations? If individuals – then they would simply transfer ownership and move out of the country, if organisations … you are going to massively fuck up all the business in the country, not sure many would want to invest.

      I can see how you can tax ANY RESIDENTIAL & NON-RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY, but that would apply to EVERYONE, not to the most wealthy, otherwise, again there would be a massive loophole which would be immediately exploited.

    13. talligan on

      Yeah but we already tax the poor and disabled to protect the rich. Won’t somebody think of the ultra wealthy!

    14. Historical_Cobbler on

      Why not start with proportional fines as other countries have, such as speeding fines or court fines.

    15. NHIretrieval on

      Would safely guarantee that not a single person criticising the idea of a wealth tax on this post would be classed as wealthy 🫠

    16. arabidopsis on

      Just copy Switzerland Wealth tax.

      A proportional wealth tax of around 0.3 to 0.5 percent is levied by the cantons on the net worth of natural persons. The tax is levied on the value of all assets (such as real estate, shares or funds) after the deduction of any debts.

    17. DankestDaddy69 on

      Can’t wait for the right to blame Labour for taxing the hard working successful people despite asking for this for years.

    18. Aware-Oil-2745 on

      What a stupid idea.

      Every tax return will turn in to a tribunal and the expert witness costs will be insane.

      HMRC will be used to wipe the floor, over and over again.

      What a wonderful net loss to the taxpayer.

    19. AlpsSad1364 on

      These articles are great for letting everyone on reddit display how little they understand about the existing tax system and in fact most of the world outside their direct experience (which is usually salaried worker that has never needed to ever think about tax).

    20. ThatGuyMaulicious on

      The same wealthy people that sponsored the Labour government to get in? Good luck with that.

    21. Fun-End-2947 on

      Lol no.. Torygraph deliberately misleading the Donor class here

      Dianne Abbot is leading the charge on this, meaning by default it will be laughed out of the room, even if it has a degree of broad support

      Had it been anyone else, it might have been considered, but she is a kiss of death on any progressive policy because she still stinks of Corbyn

      I personally think a wealth tax is the only way we have a chance of repairing the country after Brexit, but it isn’t happening via Abbot

    22. Benners999 on

      For those who point out how ineffective wealth taxes have been in the past, due to the wealthy learning how to hide their assets and find loopholes, perhaps a sudden one-off wealth tax would be better. They could periodically help fund key government initiatives that benefit the country, and would be based on one’s assets at a given time.

      TLDR News recently uploaded a video on this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayJVNx5qJp4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayJVNx5qJp4)

    23. produit1 on

      Meanwhile mayor Khan was on a tour this weekend to sell international investors on the opportunity to invest in London property.

      You can’t make this up. We have a very real housing shortage in London with a report out this week that says the landlord class is one of England’s largest business sectors.
      Meanwhile we are out there courting more foreign investors to buy luxury flats here?

    24. Saltypeon on

      I visited Gibraltor recently, impressive business numbers 12,000 registered businesses. 1 for every 3 people.

      William Hill, 888 holdings, Bet Fred, Coral, to name a few just in gambling.

      The great thing is you register a holding company that has your IP under it, get all the registration and protection rights that the UK gives but pay much less tax.

      But yes, the government should definitely focus on disbaled people and tax9ng UK wealth.

    25. JAGuk24 on

      I am never going to be in a position to pay it
      However, this is so monumentally stupid and short term, and will have a long term damage on the UK

    26. ftatman on

      The main issue seems to be with the way companies are structured and how ‘globalised’ everything is today. Things like a standard corporation tax rate, which is already a real thing, is the best way to ensure taxes aren’t avoided. And structures like the EU are quite helpful for equitably redirecting funds from taxation to where they are needed.

      If they haven’t already, can someone in Labour commission a proper study into how a wealth tax could actually work? It seems too easy to avoid and too complicated to enforce.

      Presumably it has to be tied to the territory, so it’s gotta be a land tax or something like that. I don’t know for certain but I don’t think we really have any mechanism at the moment for our government to even measure/track ‘wealth’ in real time. All the inheritance tax stuff is only calculated after someone dies and the government relies on the data you submit yourself.

    27. salamanderwolf on

      They have already had meetings with BlackRock and Price Waterhouse Coopers. I guarantee this isn’t happening.

    28. Beer-Cave-Dweller on

      Reintroduce the 45% income tax rate at £150k

      There’s literally nothing at the bottom of the food chain left to give.

    30. ResponsibilityRare10 on

      I’ll caveat this by saying I’m someone who wants the burden of tax to be made way more progressive, and for the wealthy to pay a lot more. 

      But a wealth tax is a bad idea. The admin costs with attempting to value an entire estate, not to mention the court cases as people begin appealing the treasury’s tax decisions. 

      There are some way better ways to achieve the equivalent thing. Capital gains for example is already accounted so would be easy to affect. And there’s several others, which could bring in a further £100billion. 

      https://taxingwealth.uk/

    31. hippygurl69 on

      Taxing the poor is a dumb idea even if you think capitalist economics is good 🙄.
      Abolish the wages system, from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs! No more reformist lies, overthrow the state!

    32. LyingFacts on

      Open it wide open and sort this country out. Everyone below £250,000 SALARY should be protected. Those above that threshold to say £500,000 a tax hike and etc etc