How should covid be paid for?

[KenDodd]

I think there should be a small wealth tax (up to 1%) and before anyone starts saying I'm just jealous or whatever, I would be in for thousands of pounds that I don't have and would have to owe. I feel really strongly that we can't just load yet more debt onto the young, they have it much worse than my generation did already (I'm 51).

Yabu - No to wealth tax
Yanbu - Yes to wealth tax

If you vote No, please suggest an alternative that you think would be fairer.

@YanTanTethera01

It would really depend on where the "wealth line" is drawn. An older person who has saved all their lives to pay off their mortgage, has the foresight and sense to pay into a pension fund, has gone without in order to build a good life after retirement etc. is not the same as a super-wealthy banker or footballer who could easily afford to give up an extra 1%.

But I think there are other, more obvious ways to claw back revenue into the pot. For example, bus passes and free prescriptions/dentistry when someone is 60. Last time I looked, retirement age is 66, not 60. Get rid of free prescriptions for those with Type 2 diabetes which is largely self-inflicted (would save the NHS hundreds of £millions. Reduction in foreign aid for those countries who are financially self-sufficient.

Making the country tax-attractive for large businesses and entrepreneurs will encourage them to increase their presence in the UK, create jobs and the good knock-on effects that has on the economy.

There are plenty of jobs around for those people who want them so I really don't understand why the hand-outs are going on for so long.

"Get rid of free prescriptions for those with Type 2 diabetes which is largely self-inflicted (would save the NHS hundreds of £millions." I can't tell you how much is wrong with this statement but I'll try. Firstly, there is a strong genetic element to T2D. Second, are you going to cancel free treatment for things like sports related injuries or only some "self-inflicted" health issues? Thirdly, prescriptions are a small fraction of the cost of type two diabetes. Lots of T2D patients are diet controlled and metformin is an extremely cheap medication. Even insulin isn't particularly expensive in this country. 90% of the cost of diabetes is treating complications of the condition. If people can't access treatment easily, the cost of complications will rise, so it makes no economic sense whatsoever. Fourthly, rude!

@Ifailed

It might be worth noting that the UK government gave out £137 billion in loans to banks and printed £750 billion in so-called quantitative easing to bail out bankers after the 2008 crash, £887 billion, or around £1.2 trillion in today's money. The price for that was Austerity which mainly hit the poorer. So far the government has spent 'only' £210 billion. I for one would accept a mini-austerity that was 1/6 smaller than the one we've endured for 11 years, if it was better targeted at the wealthier. By investing in health, teaching and social care the total income to the exchequer would rise due to extra taxes paid on new and better paid jobs in those sectors. Who knows we could even come out of it with a far better outlook for the young, ill and frail?

Austerity is about reducing the deficit. The deficit is bigger than during the financial crisis so unless the economy recovers significantly then the austerity would need to be bigger than last time.

I believe we are all in this together

As a country & the whole world

Covid could continue for years, decades

Suggest we need to support one another, young, middle, old, very old

I expect that taxes will increase in the future

MP bonuses scrapped.
Eh?

@bp300

I have been unable to earn any money since covid so will leave the country immediately if any wealth taxes are brought in.

Where would you go?

@bp300

I have been unable to earn any money since covid so will leave the country immediately if any wealth taxes are brought in.

Where would you go?

@KenDodd

NailsNeedDoing

I wouldn't worry. The reality is nobody is going to touch a penny of your million pound house. Poor people will just have to pay more.

It’s ok, I don’t have a million pound house. And as someone on a low income, I assume I’ll be in the category of people who you think will be paying more anyway.

I do wonder about all those who say they are happy to pay more tax. I hope none of you claim you pension allowances, ISA allowances, dividend allowances, saving interest. After all, it’s just tax avoidance isn’t it?! Or is that ok....

So I would owe £15k a year on my £300k house when I only have £70k equity on it?

No. You’d pay £700 a year. Maths and logic aren’t your strong points, are they?

It will be paid for by those who are fuelling the spread. Young people and those with incomes that can afford to go out and about. They’ll be paying it for a long time. Jam today...

If that was explained to them, maybe they’d be more willing to stay at home 🤷🏻‍♀️

I have not stopped working during Covid so far

I've paid all my taxes correctly

Interest rates are very poor if you have savings

Some of my friends have not been so fortunate having been furlough, made redundant or left their job due to caring responsibilities

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

Raise tax on alcohol, tobacco and increase the sugar tax. Scrap child benefit and maternity grants. Rather than council tax, an amount per household member. Close education establishments down and go remote so little running costs or cleaning costs needed in schools.

Start fining more people caught breaking the law, offer a percentage for people reporting. Given how many aren’t following the rules, it should make a huge amount.

Good god no. All that will happen then is a lot more child abuse, via neglect and starvation. There are many people who rely on CB and MG to pay for things for their children. Getting rid of schools- yeah great for safeguarding those same children, who often get fed and noticed by the schools. Seriously! I also disagree with paying people to inform on others- this isn’t bloody Nazi Germany is it. All you will get is more embittered neighbours attacking each other when they try to work out who told on them. Yes the authorities should be told, but not to benefit financially. Also- whilst I understand the desire to increase tax on alcohol and cigarettes, these are often the often ‘luxuries’ that some people can afford. Taxing it out of their reach will mean more child poverty....

Surely we should be looking at how other countries especially in Europe are handling this. Considering we were one of the better off ones, how are Spain and Portugal (for example) managing their debt.

Why should I be penalised for having worked hard to pay off my mortgage? If debt is deducted I’d be incentivised to mortgage the crap out of my property. How does that help anyone?

I’d stick a couple of % on income tax. And it might be small change in the grand scheme of things but I would means test more benefits (winter fuel allowance anyone?).

I have no issue with paying more tax for COVID but your idea won't work.

Lots of people are asset rich and cash poor.

I would be so pissed off if debts were deducted from it when I've spent 15 years making sacrifices to be debt free.

There needs to be huuuuuggggeeee changes to the IHT system. Higher taxes for most people and things.

Wealth taxes are just a way of taxing people twice, of even a third time. My income gets taxed, my savings interest then gets taxed and now you want to tax my actual savings?

I would be in favour of some level of capital gains tax on the sale of principal private residences.

[quote KenDodd]**@bp300

I have been unable to earn any money since covid so will leave the country immediately if any wealth taxes are brought in.

Where would you go?[/quote]
It would have to be somewhere with lower living costs such as Spain, Portugal, Greece or Eastern Europe.

YOu have to look at where mkost of them oney is spent and who has the most. Hammond tried to increase national insurance on "white van man" and in the past the single person allowance was abolished for some and child benefit for many. the reasons those were done rather than just trying to tax Philip Green more is because hardly anyone is very rich so if you want to get more tax in you have to tax the many not the few.

I don't support any of the mandatory CV19 laws and I want a much smaller state and much less state provision and a 25% or 20% flat tax/NI. I would also be happy to increase my risk of death and that of my children from CV19 by 10x than have our statutory measures in place.

I would certainly support a much more basic NHS get no care if you are over a certain weight or waist measurement and that kind of thin. 20% of our taxes go on the NHS and for many of us the pandemic has proven the NHS is not really there for most people in a crisis so not much point paying so much tax for it. We could also abolish the single person tax allowance and aslo merge tax and NI into a 33% basic rate tax/NI which is also payable by pensioners too.

I am not quite sure what kind of wealth tax is proposed here but Labour were planning say £30k a year on my house which is fine if they also say and you pay no income tax or national insurance or inheritance or stamp duty in return but that won't happen. The proposal was even if you had negative equality and not a penny of savings. So a "not wealth" tax.

I cannot see any big “new concept” tax working - better to raise everything a little bit here and there but only once the economy has fully recovered. Wealth tax means filling in annual detailed tax forms and inevitably there are deductions, which people end up using. The administration of wealth tax would be a burden. Raise inheritance tax a bit, income tax, stamp duty everything a little bit etc- yes corporation tax is very low but the idea is to attract businesses surely who employ people. As regards billionaire oligarch types if you introduce wealth tax they will just leave and do a deal with a Caribbean island or Swiss canton plus you can only ever tax a U.K. tax resident anyway.

Business taxes based on turnover so large companies such as Google and Amazon pay a larger share should be first on the list. Any other tax increases will have more acceptance as a result.

I'd also look at expenditure, and reducing the number of MPs and having a House of Lords with say 100 members not c800 as now would also make other savings more accepted.

Only a start I know.

@DynamoKev - Starbucks are franchises and don’t pay any less tax than “independent” coffee shops. Not least because they are effectively the same thing.

I am fundamentally opposed to any kind of wealth tax. It would make it possible for an older person living mortgage free off a modest pension to suddenly be homeless, due to not being able to afford the tax based on their 'assets'. Just, no.

I am not relishing the prospect of having my salary decimated by increased taxes, but I don't see any viable alternative. I knew this would happen at the start of lockdown, and I've had six months to come to terms with it.

@Xenia

"I would certainly support a much more basic NHS get no care if you are over a certain weight or waist measurement and that kind of thin."

It needs to be the other way around. Fat people die at 60 from a heart attack having never got to their state pension. Thin people live to 90 and take a daily dose of several expensive drugs, get a couple of decades of state pension and require expensive care.

We need a massive tax on fruit & veg. Any food without at least 20g of salt & 200g of sugar should be heavily taxed.

Wealth taxes don't actually work, there's been a lot of economic modelling done on it and very few developed countries actually have them now.

My opinion is that we need to look at some austerity measures first. In the height of the pandemic I noticed that the NHS were still advertising for diversity officers and other such non jobs. There is still so much waste across the NHS, civil service and other government funded bodies, this needs to be addressed first.

My opinion is also different, I think a small income tax rise across everyone is the fairest (wealthier pensioners still pay income tax on their pensions).

Conversely, I would also cut corporation tax for businesses if they set up their head offices/manufacturing plants etc here (like Ireland has done), which will create jobs and in turn we end up with more employed people who then will be paying tax.

We also do need a proper curb on immigration - when the people who are already here are losing their jobs and are unemployed we don't need hundreds and thousands more arriving, when our economy has shrunk and there aren't jobs for them to do anymore (except I'm sure in some areas, I'm not advocating zero immigration, I know that is not possible).

Go private Xenia then you wont have to worry about those terrifying fat people getting in your majesty's way for stick removals.