From today’s Guardian, in advance of the Budget:
We write to highlight personal tax avoidance by some of the wealthiest in our country, and to urge the chancellor to take action to close in on personal tax avoidance in the budget. Over 15 times as much is lost through tax avoidance at the top than to benefit fraud at the bottom. If those at the top choose not to pay their fair share, it has grave consequences for everyone. It robs our society of the funds that could end child poverty, or the money needed to increase welfare benefits and help alleviate the conditions which drive the most vulnerable to commit things such as benefit fraud in the first place.
We call on the chancellor to close in on tax avoidance, close in on tax loopholes and deliver greater tax justice. Measures could include: abolishing the domicile rule; abolishing tax havens; taxing investment income equally to income earned through labour; introducing a new wealth tax for all those earning over £250,000; introducing a new tax on bonuses; adopting a general anti-avoidance rule; removing secrecy from all British-controlled tax havens and increasing the number of tax inspectors to allow more thorough investigation.
It is time to close in on tax avoiders, recoup public money and ensure everyone in society pays their fair share - we urge the government to act.
Professor David Byrne, Jon Cruddas MP, Gavin Hayes, Neal Lawson Compass, Sunder Katwala Fabian Society, Professor Ruth Lister, Richard Murphy, Guy Palmer The Poverty Site, Ann PettiforAdvocacy International, Nancy Platts Labour PPC Brighton Pavilion,Howard Reed, Dr Sally Ruane, Clifford Singer The Other TaxPayers' Alliance, Wes Streeting NUS, Chuka Umunna Labour PPC Streatham
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I can see the logic in all that even though most will take more than the stroke of a pen in the Budget.
What about reversing the massive tax cut that this Chancellor introduced just last year when he cut CGT on short term speculative gains from 40% to just 18%? No meaningful policy reason was ever advanced to justify this cut which runs completely counter to the policy announced by Gordon Brown in 1998 – to encourage long term gains rather than short term ones.
(I addressed this in more detail on my taxbuzz blog in February)
http://taxadvicenetwork.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-are-capital-gains-taxed-at-less.html