Top economist urges Reeves to raise basic rate of income tax for first time in 50 years
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/income-tax-rise-ifs-paul-johnson-budget-b2733068.html
Posted by pppppppppppppppppd
Top economist urges Reeves to raise basic rate of income tax for first time in 50 years
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/income-tax-rise-ifs-paul-johnson-budget-b2733068.html
Posted by pppppppppppppppppd
44 Comments
How about capital gains tax first? How about corporation tax that the Conservatives cut? How about top rate of income? How about inheritance?
Enough of this shit. Recent graduates earning £50k if they’re lucky are paying practically 50% tax (Edit: on income higher than £35k) if you include student loans. What are the top 1% paying on their capital returns?
How about actually cutting the size of the state to fit the cloth (tax take) we have?
Highest income tax rate was 99.25% after the Second World War for the wealthiest earners.
We’ve done it before and we can do it again
I don’t disagree with anything he said in the article.
But it won’t happen as Labour shackled themselves during the election campaign so now they are severely restricted in what they can do unless they opt out of hard mode.
Labout pledge not to increase that. Obviously they can do whatever, but IF they are going to break their pledges it cannot be the, let’s call it “cautious”, approach they have taken so far, it has to be used for smth that – given the understandable political outrage this decision will generate – has to give such an impressive result that it outweighs everything.
Tax wealth not income. Even someone earning £100k doesn’t have that much money in the grand scheme of things.
His first major publication, ironically, is “*Inequality in the UK*”.
These people are so far removed from genuine financial worries that they think they can cause economic growth with higher taxes when people are starving, freezing and barely able or unable to afford not even a cozy home but even basic shelter.
The day where the rich are bludgeoned in the street by those who have been pushed to the ends of their means of survival, they will call the poor savages, not seeing that they caused their own demise.
Another completely out of touch move by the red right wing.
This economists doesn’t seem to understand basic economics!
There is some logic behind what he’s saying, but you can’t flog a dead horse, the fact the government waste so much money certain vanity projects & paying non UK citizens welfare!!! Is insane to raise the basic rate,
The government could save billions & billions is it really want to but apparently it doesn’t…
Don’t mind higher taxes if we end up like the Scandinavian countries.
If you want lower taxes, you must also accept poorer public services and people paying privately for things like heath care.
Yeah. Tax those who can least afford it. Another vote winner for Farage.
Fundamentally I don’t think the problem is that our taxes are too low, it’s that workers in this country are paid too little and we have many workers who in a normal economy would be decently middle class in the UK are largely reliant on state support and public services while paying a totally notional amount of tax that will never come close to what they take back.
The government needs to raise taxes specifically on unproductive wealth (wealth which is extractive in nature) but at the same time encourage productive wealth (e.g. entrepreneurs running businesses which produce real economic value and jobs)
Landlordism has a parasitic relationship to the economy, diverting wages earned by workers away into rent; money that could be circulating in the economy as consumer spending just gets extracted by the owners of property.
In other words our economy is cannibalising itself through Rentierism, something that Adam Smith and other classical economists heavily criticised. Instead of starting a real business and employing real people it is much more rational to just buy a property and extract rental income/capital gains
([recommend Michael Hudson who spells this out. skip to 11 minutes in in this interview)](https://youtu.be/XhaAbGluT9I?si=cNJLcvu8tFM1MkL6)
Until they remove the triple lock, I can’t agree with any “hard decisions” they lump yet more onto working taxpayers.
We don’t accept this at all. Raise a tax on capital gains tax, or elsewhere. With the tax bands frozen more and more people have fallen into the top rate – which is already totally outrageous.
The UKs tax system is all over the place ! The working class are punished with very little chance of improving their quality of life, meanwhile there are 100s of ways billionaires can reduce their taxes, hide their money etc.
tax the rich!! We have levels of inequality greater than at the time of the French revolution. It’s unsustainable.
Ah yes tax the people who are feeling the cost of living the worst more, that’ll do wonders for consumer spending and confidence…
They should be considering raising the threshold or the tax
The economy means that rich people need to be able to make money, not poor people.
That’s where we’re at, a labour government that’s destroying our way of life and giving the oppressors tax breaks.
We need a revolution, we need to take a page from France, no more keep calm and carry on,
We need to set a date, all go to London and chuck these mother fuckers out of parliament.
Can they please fix the tax progression? There’s so much burden at 50 and 100.
We’re already suffering from fiscal drag. Most people who were lucky enough to get a pay rise are now paying more tax as the tax free allowance wasn’t increased and then the thresholds for basic rate and higher rate stayed the same. Raising the base rate will mean even more people will be significantly worse off.
So his logic is to take away even more income from those who need it the most while completely avoiding capital gains tax or top band? With this cost of living and poor wages, we’ll just about be able to pay our bills and die.
Love the uk I do
How about, No!
Instead: cut the 8mio a day for illegal refugee hotels and free benefits that’s they’re all here for.
Why are homes (primary) not subject to capital gains?
Always found it strange that the buyer pays tax but the seller walks off with a nice tax free profit.
Is this top economist also aware that any increase on basic income tax eliminates any chance of a return to number 10 for labour in 2029.
Reeves may aswell hand her seat over at the same time
If they want to increase the tax grab, taxing those on lower incomes is the easiest way. Or increasing VAT.
Not sure what else they can squeeze. Most higher earners are squeezed so tight there’s no juice left.
If UK raises any more tax private enterprise in the UK will die off. I realise the need to increase the tax revenue to fix the broken system, but taxing the hell out of private capital will not do anyone any favours
No, _reduce the taxes_.
Corporate tax revenues actually increased when the rate was lowered.
Isn’t neoliberalism just wonderful…selling off all state assets leaves you with no other choice but to raise taxes.
Moronic ideology
Before this they need to start looking at; household tax free allowance calculations (it’s silly that one household can get 10k while another gets 20k ect), NI on pensioners, pension triple lock needs going, capital gains tax and income tax need sorting out so only actual capital gains go under capital gains tax and the income that people funnel through capital gains tax is correctly tax under income tax.
Fuck these people. They are against us. They are for corruption. They are for exploitation of the stupid. They resemble nothing about a Labour Party I would value. They all need to be dethroned. No-one who gives Britain’s assets away to foreign investment is a patriot. No-one who refuses to tax the higher brackets of wealth is a patriot. No-one who executes financial cuts on the most vulnerable people in society should even be allowed in this country. No-one who encourages unlimited immigration for the sake of ‘economic growth’ should be allowed to prosper in Britain. These types of people have declared war against the public, and they deserve an eye for an eye.
Do you think we’ll ever get to a point where the working class aren’t getting shafted left, right and centre in this country?
Labour really don’t want to be voted back in next time do they.
Bit of a disingenous headline considered there used to be a “starter rate” below Basic, which Gordon Brown abolished on the eve of the last general election before Labour got booted out.
Not sure what you’d called eliminating the lowest band as anything other than a rise in income tax!
Or just adjust the fucking tax brackets and give us more personal allowance. I’m already taxed to pieces. Stop spending my money on stupid shit would be a good start too
Our taxes have already gone up in real terms
The cost of everything has exploded in the last few years, supposedly our salaries have gone up too if you believe the economists (I’m still waiting on that one), yet the tax banding has stayed stubbornly where it is
You now need to be earning well over £30k to even start to be considered to be doing well, but that higher rate band is waiting for you there at £50k
I don’t think the tax free threshold has changed much either? A paltry £12k is all you get before the tax man comes knocking
Won’t she just get on with it. Has to happen, no more manoeuvres
Oh fuck off. We can’t all just keep paying more tax. We already get taxed shitloads on income, plus NI contributions which is a tax, then we pay 20% on practically everything we purchase too. Start to tax the high income earners and the wealth. How can someone that owns £millions in assets contribute nothing while poor people who can’t afford a single home have to pay more tax?
If we keep raising taxes then surely the economy will grow
Why not stop giving our money away to anyone that ‘needs’ it & pissing away the other half on pipe dreams ?!?
Maybe then we won’t have to keep raising taxes on everyone and shafting people that are just trying to get by and enjoy living when they can.
Honestly this country is fucking sickening
Where does it stop, already have a tiny proportion of the population shouldering the bill, need to start making work pay not forcing us to work and for for nothing
How much is being spent on so called nonsense such as think tanks and bodies to “regulate” average wallets? Cut this draconian regulatory system and you’ll see the savings flowing in to cover up. In addition invest more into quality at first place to last longer as a start.
In the USA, you need to make over $550k to enter the 37% marginal federal income tax bracket. In the UK at just £50k you enter the 40% rate. Ordinary people are hammered in the UK, just beaten down.