EconomyEnded 2 Sept
Should there be a 2% tax on individual wealth over £10 million?
Yes 47%No 53%575 votes cast
The UK has no annual wealth tax. Proposals for a 2% levy on individual net wealth exceeding £10 million would affect around 20,000-32,000 people and could raise up to £24 billion yearly according to campaigners like Tax Justice UK and Oxfam. Recent academic modelling instead recommends a 2% minimum effective tax on total wealth for the roughly 1,000 households worth over £100 million, projected to raise £10 billion in 2026 and reduce the budget deficit by nearly a third. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has signalled wealth taxes are not an immediate priority.
26 Opinions
Working people pay tax on every penny earned through overtime, yet multi-million fortunes sit virtually untouched. A modest 2% levy on wealth over £10m isn't punishment, is it? It's basic fairness.
I'd usually be vehemently opposed to this. However when you see where tax burden lies, it overwhelmingly ends up being dumped onto higher salary earners while their employers end up paying pennies through loopholes. If a wealth tax can be implemented that avoids these loopholes and is actually enforceable, then it could lead to a fairer taxation system for employees, who at the moment are dealing with a cost of living crisis.
I'm Britain today you have Joe public paying inheritance tax on a few thousand pounds of inheritance. Whilst at the same time royalty pay nothing on billions of pounds of inheritance, along with the super rich employing accountants to avoid paying their fair of inheritance tax. Until that changes without doubt there should be a wealth tax, just to level the playing field!
No more taxes, they are killing economy. Cut the spendings to bare minimum.
We are underfunded at the moment and trickle down economics is not working. I see this as a one off and the investment decisions need to be precise. Considered tax reform should follow. Opponents due to “Public Sector wastage” should note that a huge amount of public sector money is funnelled into consultancies and outsourcing contracts. Some £10m earners reside there (it’s cyclical).
It hasn't worked elsewhere in the World. It's a sop to an economically illiterate electorate
This isn't a straightforward yes or no question. The politics of envy. Where wealth is not held in cash, taxing assets can have a negative effect. As with inheritance tax on farmers. Many things only become real wealth once they are sold, and are only wealth on paper. Where that wealth is tied up in business, it can stifle investment and the growth the Labour party has made a priority.
Wealth taxes don’t work, there is a lot of evidence for this. A wealth tax with these thresholds would destroy small businesses in this country.
Britain needs all the money we can get if we are to invest the money we need to fix our out of date infrastructure and fund the NHS when we have an ageing population. However, the burden increasingly seems to fall on middle income earners and small businessses. A wealth tax would target those with the broadest shoulders, while still funding our economy. The key would be in the implementation; wealth taxes have been a mixed bag where they’ve been used
Agree in principle but capital flight/offshore loopholes are the mostly likely outcome, which would prove a larger risk