{"id":43130,"date":"2018-09-23T17:16:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T16:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=43130"},"modified":"2018-09-23T17:16:17","modified_gmt":"2018-09-23T16:16:17","slug":"the-radical-tax-policies-id-be-looking-for-if-we-had-a-general-election-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/09\/23\/the-radical-tax-policies-id-be-looking-for-if-we-had-a-general-election-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The radical tax policies I’d be looking for if we had a general election now"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am delighted Corbyn has backed the idea that he will follow his party conference on a second referendum<\/a>\u00a0today. Assuming that the conference is given a free vote there is no doubt that Labour party members will back the idea. That will enormously boost Labour, its membership and the belief that the members may actually be able to influence Labour Party policy, which will help many when it comes to voting.<\/p>\n

But let's consider Labour's preferred option instead. This is a general election. Talk of it appears to be almost open\u00a0now. When a minister\u00a0has to deny it this morning<\/a> the possibility that it is a real option was openly acknowledged.<\/p>\n

I believe\u00a0a general election is now the best way to settle the Brexit question. It would be best for the country, for democracy and for Europe and allay all the nonsense on there being no choice\u00a0but see this through. So saying, I acknowledge that Brexit would be the absolute number one issue in any such election. But let me suppose for a moment that other issues might be considered. Let me just suggest some tax and related issues Labour might like to consider. The following is not a complete list. It's just a starter for 10 (or a bit more):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Make income tax rates more progressive - including a 50% top rate theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2011\/sep\/07\/should-the-50p-tax-rate-go<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Reduce tax rates on those with lower income<\/li>\n
  3. Increase corporation tax rates for larger companies taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2014\/01\/30\/george-osbornes-10-billion-a-year-tax-giveaway-to-big-companies\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Create an alternative minimum corporation tax taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2016\/09\/30\/time-for-an-alternative-minimum-corporation-tax\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Create a proper general anti-avoidance principle to underpin the attack on tax avoidance taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/06\/20\/why-we-need-a-genuine-general-anti-avoidance-principle-to-beat-tax-abuse-2\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Create a Ministry of Tax to ensure the effective management of the tax system as part of overall fiscal policy taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/09\/05\/a-ministry-of-tax\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Improved measurement of the UK tax gap and increase the resources available to tackle it taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/10\/26\/i-would-love-the-uk-to-have-reliable-tax-gap-data-but-right-now-that-still-looks-like-an-aspiration-and-not-a-reality\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Introduce public country-by-country reporting to hold large companies to account for the corporation tax they should pay concernedafricascholars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/caploss07-murphy-14th.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Equalise capital gains tax and income tax rates taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/07\/17\/wealth-taxation-a-programme-to-tackle-the-crisis-of-inequality-that-we-face\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Abolish capital gains tax Entrepreneur\u2019s Relief which is a pure subsidy for those already wealthy taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2015\/11\/17\/why-we-dont-need-capital-gains-tax-entrepreneurs-relief\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. Remove the cap on income tax so that it is paid at full rate on all earned income - however much it goes up to taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WealthtaxUK816.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. Remove pension tax relief at higher rate with the aim of reducing wealth inequality taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/03\/01\/in-the-last-ten-years-the-uk-has-subsidised-pension-saving-by-481-billion-wasnt-there-a-better-use-for-that-money\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. Remove higher rate charitable donation tax relief taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/01\/31\/time-to-reform-charity-tax-relief-2\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  14. Introduce an investment income surcharge on unearned income as the equivalent of national insurance on such earnings taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WealthtaxUK816.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n
  15. Add new council tax bands to make this tax more progressive, allowing reduction in rates at lower rates and its removal from those in receipt of benefits taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2016\/12\/13\/there-is-only-one-acceptable-council-tax-solution-to-the-care-crisis-and-thats-to-create-more-higher-rate-bands\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  16. Abolish university tuition fees taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/10\/11\/tuition-fees-the-neoliberals-just-dont-understand-why-we-must-educate-our-undergraduates\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  17. Write off student debt taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/05\/09\/to-get-young-people-to-vote-offer-to-write-off-student-debt\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  18. Create a National Investment Bank to build the new housing this country needs at affordable prices greennewdealgroup.org\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  19. Bring the control of all economic policy back under the control of the Treasury since monetary policy is now effectively inoperative in the UK taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/06\/27\/the-role-of-the-bank-of-england-the-debate-continues\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  20. Remove the savings rate tax as ISAs already provide all the same benefits and this allowance complicates the tax system<\/li>\n
  21. Restrict ISA investment to funds creating new employment and real investment in the UK taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/05\/31\/its-time-to-scrap-isas-and-other-tax-related-savings-schemes\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  22. Replace inheritance tax with a wealth tax taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/03\/25\/its-time-to-tax-wealth\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  23. Pilot a Carbon Usage Tax commonspace.scot\/articles\/11614\/10-steps-could-create-fairer-better-tax-system-independent-<\/a>scotland<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I'm open to suggestions, and ones on ranking of priorities as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am delighted Corbyn has backed the idea that he will follow his party conference on a second referendum\u00a0today. Assuming that the conference is given
     Read the full article…<\/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":[35,106,10,55,50,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-politics","category-tax-avoidance","category-tax-evasion","category-tax-gap","category-tax-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43130","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=43130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}