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Original poster

Proposed Wealth Tax

769 replies

BootsieBarnes · 30/01/2021 16:11

It's been discussed in the press that the Chancellor is considering a one-off wealth tax of 5% on assets over £500k. Allegedly this is being considered as part of the March budget to make a dent in the huge Covid debt the UK is facing.

So in real terms that would be a £25k tax bill for someone who has assets valued at £500k, such as property.

What do you think about this? would your family be able to swallow a tax bill that size?

I'm not doing any research, I just read that and thought about the impact it would have on families living in houses in that price bracket.

I've put on voting as well for interest. I'm not actually sure where I stand on this as I can see both sides, so this is just an arbitrary allocation just for voting.

YABU - people with assets that big should pay

YANBU - that would be unfair

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 01/02/2021 13:16

Or to put it another way, you are vastly more wealthy than the majority of the population, with savings, a valuable house, and no mortgage to pay, but don't think it is fair that you should be asked to contribute a bit more.

dontdisturbmenow · 01/02/2021 13:19

Why not a tax on second homes, buy to let
You mean buy to let even more? Ie. More than the 40% it is already for many who happen to earn an income from employment?

VinylDetective · 01/02/2021 13:20

@PigletJohn

Or to put it another way, you are vastly more wealthy than the majority of the population, with savings, a valuable house, and no mortgage to pay, but don't think it is fair that you should be asked to contribute a bit more.
Exactly this. It’s always the wealthiest who shout loudest when increased taxation is mentioned and find innumerable reasons why it shouldn’t affect them.
dontdisturbmenow · 01/02/2021 13:30

It’s always the wealthiest who shout loudest when increased taxation is mentioned and find innumerable reasons why it shouldn’t affect them
Because they already contribute proportionally more.

Why should they have to pay yet more whilst others get to continue with the status quo or recieve more.

What if you were told that you have to pay an additional tax in your car because it's worth more whilst you neighbour who has the sane car but a year older doesn't. You can't afford to pay the tax so have to sell your car and buy a cheaper one than your neighbour's.

Still fair? I bet not!

VinylDetective · 01/02/2021 13:35

@dontdisturbmenow

It’s always the wealthiest who shout loudest when increased taxation is mentioned and find innumerable reasons why it shouldn’t affect them Because they already contribute proportionally more.

Why should they have to pay yet more whilst others get to continue with the status quo or recieve more.

What if you were told that you have to pay an additional tax in your car because it's worth more whilst you neighbour who has the sane car but a year older doesn't. You can't afford to pay the tax so have to sell your car and buy a cheaper one than your neighbour's.

Still fair? I bet not!

That’s an absolutely ridiculous analogy and I suspect you know it. And the wealthiest don’t contribute more. Everyone pays exactly the same rates of tax on their income. This is about taxing largely unearned wealth. Our house is now worth 350% of what we paid for it, all we did was live in it and watch the value rise.
GappyValley · 01/02/2021 13:44

Everyone pays exactly the same rates of tax on their income.

Umm, are you sure?
Because if you are, a LOT of top rate tax payers are due a big refund...

DynamoKev · 01/02/2021 13:47

@Kendodd

Can we please stop with the 'worked hard all their life' bollocks. So what! Most people work hard all their life, there's nothing special about it. If I had to bet I would put my money on there being absolutely no relationship between hard work and wealth, poor people probably work just as hard as rich people, in fact I would guess they work harder.
Correct. At the same time we need to junk the ridiculous "this has cost such a lot of money it will all have to be paid for" bollocks too. Pretty much everywhere has had to have emergency measures - it's not as if we have been unusually spendthrift living beyond our means - those are ideas put forward by politicians who have an agenda to get us to pay for things they don't want their friends to pay for, that's all.
VinylDetective · 01/02/2021 13:51

@GappyValley

Everyone pays exactly the same rates of tax on their income.

Umm, are you sure?
Because if you are, a LOT of top rate tax payers are due a big refund...

Yes I am sure. The tax bands apply to everyone.
GreenlandTheMovie · 01/02/2021 13:54

Everyone pays exactly the same rates of tax on their income.

Try telling that to a person who loses half of any salary increase in tax and national insurance, so that a pay rise of £2000 pa becomes £1000. And then compare them to a self employed tradesmen (and lets face it, in this country, they are invariably men), who somehow manages to have a champagne lifestyle on a lower salary.

It would also make it much fairer if we were able to deduct our true commuting to work costs from our tax bills, as in countries such as The Netherlands.

YouJustDoYou · 01/02/2021 13:59

And the wealthiest don’t contribute more. Everyone pays exactly the same rates of tax on their income

😂😂

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 01/02/2021 13:59

I've not rtft but I think it's a great idea.

I'm not clear if you would pay 5% on £500k or on the wealth above £500k? I read it as though it would be like income tax and the extra was over the threshold. So it wouldn't be £25k for everyone with £500k of asset value but 5% over that.

So someone with £550k of equity would pay £2.5k. Which I'm sure would be doable.

If it was a flat rate that came in at £500k that's trickier for all the reasons mentioned but I'd still support and maybe it could be paid over 5 years or something.

They need to close the pension loophole they just reopened and look seriously at luxury taxation levels (including things like private school).

HikeForward · 01/02/2021 13:59

If I had to bet I would put my money on there being absolutely no relationship between hard work and wealth, poor people probably work just as hard as rich people, in fact I would guess they work harder

No relationship between hard work and wealth? Why? 😂

How do you think people reach high earning professions? Do you think well paid jobs just appear by luck and people don’t go through years of study, years of climbing career ladders, making good decisions (like saving a percentage of their income, planning their next career move, having a family when they can comfortably afford to etc). Everyone I know who is ‘wealthy’ has got there through hard work, saving and careful planning.

I’m sure there are a some wealthy people living off inheritances who don’t work hard and never have. And no doubt there are some poor people who don’t work hard and never have (and some who work hard but make unwise decisions with their money, or choose to stay in a low paid job instead of studying and progressing to a better paid one).

‘Luck’ has very little to do with it for most.

VinylDetective · 01/02/2021 14:01

@YouJustDoYou

And the wealthiest don’t contribute more. Everyone pays exactly the same rates of tax on their income

😂😂

Instead of just laughing, perhaps you could tell me about this extra high income tax band that I’ve somehow managed not to know about. I’m always happy to be educated.
o8O8O8o · 01/02/2021 14:03

To be wealthy you need to be good at making money flow in your direction, broadly speaking the people who work the hardest in terms of longest hours and physical effort are often paid the least, as the saying goes only fools and horses work
the people at the top skim the cream off of everyone else's efforts

GreenlandTheMovie · 01/02/2021 14:05

@HikeForward

If I had to bet I would put my money on there being absolutely no relationship between hard work and wealth, poor people probably work just as hard as rich people, in fact I would guess they work harder

No relationship between hard work and wealth? Why? 😂

How do you think people reach high earning professions? Do you think well paid jobs just appear by luck and people don’t go through years of study, years of climbing career ladders, making good decisions (like saving a percentage of their income, planning their next career move, having a family when they can comfortably afford to etc). Everyone I know who is ‘wealthy’ has got there through hard work, saving and careful planning.

I’m sure there are a some wealthy people living off inheritances who don’t work hard and never have. And no doubt there are some poor people who don’t work hard and never have (and some who work hard but make unwise decisions with their money, or choose to stay in a low paid job instead of studying and progressing to a better paid one).

‘Luck’ has very little to do with it for most.

I remember reading on here once, from a poster who was relatively long term unemployed and on (not disability) benefits, that another poster who was stressed by working full time in a professional job and doing the school run and much of the childcare, that the latter was "lucky to work".

The implication being that it was some great fortune in life to have to go out to work and pursue a career, that the worker should be eternally grateful for, and go around wearing a hare shirt to compliment their incredible luck in life.

VinylDetective · 01/02/2021 14:07

@o8O8O8o

To be wealthy you need to be good at making money flow in your direction, broadly speaking the people who work the hardest in terms of longest hours and physical effort are often paid the least, as the saying goes only fools and horses work the people at the top skim the cream off of everyone else's efforts
I agree with you. As I said upthread I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as care home assistants on minimum wage. A lot of them had second jobs too.
DynamoKev · 01/02/2021 14:13

@HikeForward

If I had to bet I would put my money on there being absolutely no relationship between hard work and wealth, poor people probably work just as hard as rich people, in fact I would guess they work harder

No relationship between hard work and wealth? Why? 😂

How do you think people reach high earning professions? Do you think well paid jobs just appear by luck and people don’t go through years of study, years of climbing career ladders, making good decisions (like saving a percentage of their income, planning their next career move, having a family when they can comfortably afford to etc). Everyone I know who is ‘wealthy’ has got there through hard work, saving and careful planning.

I’m sure there are a some wealthy people living off inheritances who don’t work hard and never have. And no doubt there are some poor people who don’t work hard and never have (and some who work hard but make unwise decisions with their money, or choose to stay in a low paid job instead of studying and progressing to a better paid one).

‘Luck’ has very little to do with it for most.

The claim wasn't that being wealthy never requires work, it was that it's not always directly in proportion to "hard work" (whatever the fuck that is supposed to be) and that people who are poor may have worked just as hard.
GappyValley · 01/02/2021 14:13

@VinylDetective

I'm really confused.

If the wealthiest don't contribute more, how do you explain how a wealthy person earning £200k is paying out up to 45% of that to the tax man, compared to someone on £30k paying 20%

On any measure, 45% is more than 20% - therefore the wealthy are contributing more than the non-wealthy, surely?

EvilPea · 01/02/2021 14:14

No relationship between hard work and wealth? Why? 😂

It is mostly luck
Luck your born in the right country
Luck your born into the right family that support you, push you, maybe give you a helping financial hand, maybe put value on education or just allow you (Or can afford) to live at home whilst you save.
Luck you don’t have something terrible happen in your life that renders your mental health or physical health to suffer.

For me, I didn’t go to university as we couldn’t afford it. I ended up in a financially abusive relationship in my twenties that has ruined me. Had I been from a wealthier family Or even a supportive family my outcomes would Be very different.

Some of that is poor choices, some of that is luck. But it’s not from not working hard

EvilPea · 01/02/2021 14:18

If you look at peoples parents as well, there’s a reason wealthier families have wealthier children.
It’s knowing how to deal with money, how to make it make more. Just having that support and knowledge is invaluable.
Even if they done financially give you a leg up

PigletJohn · 01/02/2021 14:23

@GappyValley

in your example, you are talking about income, not about wealth.

So a person earning £100,000 and having a £1million pound house would pay the same tax as a person with a taxable* income of £100,000 and owning a house worth £50million.

*not all income is taxable

klh386 · 01/02/2021 14:23

There's a reason why there aren't enough billionaires in the UK to pay taxes for shit like this. Taxes in the UK are unreasonable across the board and have driven them out. So someone with a modest 500k has to pay a fucking wealth tax. More mass exodus.

o8O8O8o · 01/02/2021 14:23

As I said upthread I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as care home assistants on minimum wage. A lot of them had second jobs too
Very strongly agree!
It has taken a pandemic to reveal the truth, the most important people the glue that holds us all together are the ones who are paid the least
The people at the top work very hard to draw attention away from this fact because it delegitimizes them and all their wealth!

PigletJohn · 01/02/2021 14:25

@klh386 no, not even the Daily Express claimed that.

Blackberrycream · 01/02/2021 14:26

@ LunaHeather
Thanks. It does help!