In a series of videos I am looking at practical ways in which we can tackle the problems created by inequality in the UK, particularly represented by the rise in the number of multi-millionaires in our society, not least during the course of the Covid epidemic.
One of the ways in which the UK tax system is heavily biased towards those with wealth is in the way in which it taxes capital gains. These are the profits that people make on the sale of assets that they have owned, sometimes for only a few days, and other times for many years, whether they be shares, rental properties, artwork, bitcoins or something else of a similar type.
The UK tax system charges these to tax at rates that are about half those applied to income from work, and to add insult to injury, no national insurance is charged either. I explore what to do about this issue in this video.
This video is one of a series. All of the videos are linked from this page on the Tax Research wiki, which is being updated as new videos are produced.
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I hope that most dysfunctional of HM Oppositions – the Labour Party – are watching these. Friendly and informative as usual – you could sell snow to the Eskimo’s with that persona pitch.
I tell you what though Richard, the hypocrisy amongst the English middle class on the issue of taxing investment income really gets my goat.
The unwritten rule is ‘OK – tax my work pay but leave my other stuff alone’.
What amazes me though are the charges levied by the people who store this wealth. If you’re going to pay to hide it, why not just pay the bloody tax!!?
The amount of time I have to sit around a table hearing people going on about the state of the nation knowing full well that they’re hiding their cash. And these are people who think that taxes pay for everything!? England has slowly become a land of lies and self-deception over the years.
[…] gains tax is forecast to raise £9.2 billion in revenue this year. But, as I noted yesterday, most capital gains tax is charged at rates that are near enough half those charged on income. If […]