Wealth taxes: a Chancellor saying no is not enough to end a debate

Posted on

Rishi Sunak replied, saying:

No, I do not believe that now is the time, or ever would be the time, for a wealth tax. Now is the time to recognise the acute challenge that we face of unemployment and now is the time to act decisively and with compassion to provide hope and opportunity to the hundreds of thousands of young people, especially, who are at risk of scarring and losing the future that they deserve. That is why we have put in place the measures today, and that is what the focus should be on.

I am sure Rishi Sunak has his own very good reasons for opposing a wealth tax. What is clear is that, along with the prime minister, his mind is made up on this issue. What is also apparent is that  it is being used to beat Labour with wholly false claims.

So what to do? As I have argued in the Tax After Cornonavirus series, the answer is to concentrate on the need for additional taxes on the income from wealth rather than a wealth tax itself. And the yield would, anyway, be higher, whilst the wins would be easier to secure.

This issue is not dead as yet, by a very long way. A Chancellor saying no is not enough to end a debate.


Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here: