What do you think of this idea of a wealth tax?

[LuluJakey1]

This is from The Guardian this afternoon. It is the third article I have seen in the Press two days promoting this idea.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/06/arts-wealth-tax-rishi-sunak-nhs-public-services?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Personally, I think it is bonkers. She seems to be suggesting that ALL wealth in this country - houses, savings, pensions, shares/paintings etc should be subjected to a one off tax of 10% to get us out of the financial mess.

DH and I would have to find about £80,000 cash! We'd have to sell the house?

Yes- Yes it is a good idea and you are BU to criticise it.
No- It is an awful idea and you are right to criticise it.

But if you support a wealth tax then you support the principle that the state has the right to seize my assets simply because I have more than others. That I have worked for it and saved and invested, sacrificed everything and assumed huge risks, paid enormous sums in tax and given many people employment along the way is apparently irrelevant. I and others like me must foot the bill. Suffice to say I will never hand it over and I’m grateful that careful tax planning means I won’t have to!

@RedtreesRedtrees - you may work hard and are paid well but a minimum wage care worker, binman, shop assistant etc also may work hard but are not financially rewarded as you are.

So they wouldn’t be paying a wealth tax

[quote Parker231]@RedtreesRedtrees - you may work hard and are paid well but a minimum wage care worker, binman, shop assistant etc also may work hard but are not financially rewarded as you are.[/quote]
Exactly that. If the last few months have shown us anything it’s who’s really valuable to our society and - what a surprise - it’s the lowest paid. The care workers, supermarket staff, delivery drivers have kept us all afloat and endangered their health to do it. I’ve never worked half as hard as those people yet I’ve been paid far more. Now that’s unfair. The very least I can do is pay more tax.

And I’m sure those in the public sector will be getting a pay rise and I wonder who’ll foot the bill for that

After years of underinvestment and pay freezes in the public sector I hope they will now all get decent pay increases. They deserve it.

We’ll be paying more tax in the future to cover Covid and Brexit costs.

Spot on. I’d particularly like to see clinical NHS staff get a very healthy uplift and everyone who provides personal care. It seems that some supermarkets are giving their staff who worked throughout lockdown a bonus, I’d really like it if it could be untaxed.

@SheWranglesRugRats

Loving people on this thread claiming to know more about economics than global economics superstar Thomas Piketty.

Being a "superstar" just means his views are fashionable, not that they are correct. Don't be fooled by people telling you what you want to hear.

[quote Parker231]@RedtreesRedtrees - you may work hard and are paid well but a minimum wage care worker, binman, shop assistant etc also may work hard but are not financially rewarded as you are.[/quote]
They could also be hit by a bus and disabled for life.

Or develop a chronic wasting condition leaving them unable to work or look after themselves.

@redtreesredtrees your business doesn't operate in a vacuum. It benefits from having a healthy and educated workforce that you can recruit from, and find customers from. It benefits from the roads we all pay for to enable your staff and supplies to reach you. It benefits from the foreign office and army maintaining the peace so you can trade.

I could go on, but your business, which has made you wealthy, could not exist without the taxes we all pay, and those with the greatest means should pay the most, because they can.

Polly Toynbee earns well over 100K a year and has family wealth. She'll be OK, of course. For once I'd like to see someone (well-known) who would actually be disadvantaged by something like this stand up for it.

It's so sad that people always seem to think that they have wealth purely because of their own hard work. Nobody exists in a vacuum and the highest paid among us couldn't do do without the lower paid who keep society going. That's why a wealth tax is a good idea - it would redistribute some of the wealth in a desperately unequal society.

No I recognise the input of others and they’re paid a market rate for that input. I need a bin man to empty my bins just like the next person. That bin man gets paid a salary that the market determines. But for some reason I have to pay much more of that salary than everyone else. That’s the punishment for my success. If you want more money then try earning it yourselves rather than stealing it from others.

You don’t pay more towards public services than anyone else - it’s proportional to your earnings. That’s why we have a sliding tax scale. Why do you think anyone has stole from you?

If you want more money then try earning it yourselves rather than stealing it from others

It’s already been pointed out to you that some of us earn plenty of money and have no need of yours. We don’t regard tax as stealing. It’s called paying your dues.

Parker. Ok sure, some people probably pay more than me, but I certainly pay more than 99% of the population. The ‘proportion’ is irrelevant.

I’m a higher rate tax payer, as is my DH and we pay corporation tax on a business we own - that’s how the UK taxation system works. We want good public services, they need funding. How do you suggest the police force, hospitals and schools are funded?

Alsohuman, but you do want mine because you’re backing a wealth tax. That’s not fairly spreading the burden over the population, that’s specifically targeting a small group of people and helping yourselves to a chunk of our assets.

Parker through tax paid by everyone. Not the government taking a chunk of assets from a small group of people because they’ve decided we can afford it.

Fashionable or not, I’d still wager that Thomas Piketty knows more about economics than anyone on here.

Attitudes like redtrees make me despair. You’d still have plenty left even if taxes did rise a bit, presumably.

Shewrangles it’s not yours (or the government’s) to take. It’s completely irrelevant how much I have. I pay an enormous amount of tax. People like me contribute a huge percentage of the total income tax receipts. I wouldn’t mind being asked to contribute more - I probably would. But what irks me is the government just deciding to help itself. That’s straight theft. Unsurprisingly I wouldn’t pay a wealth tax and most of my friends have similarly made long-standing plans for this very scenario. When we go we’ll take everything with us and believe me there are other jurisdictions that will welcome us with open arms.

What you say might or might not be true.

"I pay an enormous amount of tax."

That can only happen if you receive an enormously huge amount of money. Which most people would say is a good thing, and much better than receiving a terribly small amount of money. Try it one day.

It must be a terrible trial to you to find that sometimes people expect you to pay your share, and that sometimes, paying tax is not optional.

Are you under the impression that you are in some way "special?"

Yes I am apparently special because I, along with a few other people, will be singled out and forced to hand over our assets.

RedtreesRedtrees

I guess you would never put your name on this then.?

www.millionairesforhumanity.com/

No all rich people think like you.