{"id":34361,"date":"2016-08-12T08:26:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T07:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=34361"},"modified":"2016-08-12T08:26:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T07:26:22","slug":"how-to-tax-wealth-in-the-uk-without-even-starting-on-inheritance-tax-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2016\/08\/12\/how-to-tax-wealth-in-the-uk-without-even-starting-on-inheritance-tax-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tax wealth in the UK without even starting on inheritance tax reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a marked absence of willing to tax wealth in the UK. I have always felt this a serious error of judgement and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2016\/08\/12\/its-time-for-trusts-to-be-held-to-account\/\" target=\"_blank\">discussion on the late Duke of Westminster's tax avoidance<\/a> just highlights that.<\/p>\n<p>I wrote a paper on this a while ago that did not see the light of day at the time but which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WealthtaxUK816.pdf\">I share now<\/a>. The summary says:<\/p>\n<p><em>This brief report looks at the financial wealth of the UK, its distribution and its taxation and suggests reforms to:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Create a fairer tax system;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Reduce inequality;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Release funds for use to benefit those who have lost out under Conservative and Coalition governments;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Boost investment;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Encourage greater tax compliance.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>It does this by:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Suggesting an investment income surcharge be included in the income tax system that would increase the tax rate on the savings and investment income of higher rate taxpayers by 15%. This might raise \u00a36.5 billion of new revenues per annum;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Reforming capital gains tax to:<\/em>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Halve the annual allowance<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Have the tax paid at income tax rates<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Abolish entrepreneur\u2019s relief<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Improve tax compliance<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>These reforms might raise \u00a39 billion a year;<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Restrict some inheritance tax reliefs in advance of more thorough-going reform to raise \u00a30.5 billion a year;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Review the long term possibility of a wealth tax.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>These changes raise a total of \u00a316 billion a year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The report also looks at the interaction of tax reliefs and pension contributions given that 40% of UK wealth is in private pension funds. It suggests:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Restricting all higher rate pensions contribution reliefs, raising maybe \u00a38 billion of tax a year;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Requiring that 20% of all pension contributions be invested in employment creating opportunities in exchange for the tax reliefs available to pension funds. This might direct \u00a320 billion towards new employment creating opportunities a year.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>In total then this report suggests the source of \u00a324 billion of tax revenues and \u00a320 billion of investment funds a year as a result of a review of the relationship between wealth and taxation in the UK.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And I would stress that was before looking at major inheritance tax reforms whilst suggested land taxation reforms were not counted in totals a the benefits would go to local authorities.<\/p>\n<p>I stress, it was just a working document that I have dragged out as it seems relevant today. But I hope it suggests that there are ways to create a more equitable tax system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a marked absence of willing to tax wealth in the UK. I have always felt this a serious error of judgement and<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2016\/08\/12\/how-to-tax-wealth-in-the-uk-without-even-starting-on-inheritance-tax-reform\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,30,97,150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inequality","category-inheritance-tax","category-tax-justice","category-wealth-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}