Quite a lot of better off people would be happy to pay more tax?

[Echobelly]

Provided it was channeled towards things like NHS, social care, education.

It seems weirdly outdated to me that mainstream political parties find raising taxes on the wealthy anathema. We've been living in such a low-tax society for so long, but households like mine (I'd say it's a 6-figure annual income between us) could easily afford to pay more in tax and still enjoy our lives.

But instead parties are obsessed with recouping money by removing benefits for the poorest people, which is stupid as the difficulties resulting from plunging people into greater poverty, as well as being cruel, will ultimately cost more money than it saves.

Take that money off people like me in taxes! We won't become homeless or sick or suffer mental distress for the sake of a bit more tax. Year after year I see budgets that will apparently save people like me £500 a year, as if this is supposed to be an incentive to vote for the Tories but tbh, I won't even notice being better off by £500 a year. Give that saving to someone for whom it'll make an impact!

I’m rich and would be happy to pay more tax. I resent my money being wasted by the current incompetent and corrupt government though.

Low taxation panders to the selfish side of human nature

Funnily enough many societies with higher taxes and more enforced wealth distribution are happier overall . Wealth inequality is a great predictor of the unhappiness level of your society

Do you really think that people are happy paying income Tax? Why do you think high earners pay accountants so much money so that they can avoid paying it?

The poor don't pay tax fgs, they're subsidized by the wealthy

Absolute rubbish.

Without the lower wage earners, who proportionately pay far more in tax than the wealthy, we'd all be screwed.

VAT, Council tax, NI and of course income tax.

So someone on 20k per year, will pay an extra £130 just in extra NI in April....on top of '00s in energy costs and inflation at 6%...

Sunak will pay an extra £8k but as a billionaire, thats peanuts to him.

One of the biggest problems is that the elder generations will be, over the course of their life times, net beneficiaries of the tax system whilst those who are younger will be net contributors.

So putting the tax on income, does what exactly?

You need to be taxing those who are net beneficiaries to balance the problem...

I think you're right OP in theory. DH and I earn 6 figures between us but only just over that and could pay a small amount more, across the whole population earning above average it would surely help. Trouble is there are a lot of public funds being completely wasted so its totally pointless until that is addressed. If public funds were being used in the right way and for the right thing then I'm sure the NHS would be in a better state than it is now.

Due to loads of NHS dentists near us closing we are having to look at private options as we have no choice at all. I feel quite sad that my kids can only access proper dental care if we can afford to pay for it.

OP - you say you are happy to pay an additional £500 a year, this is 0.5% of a £100k household income. I am assuming the increasing funds you have each year are due to increases to the personal allowance or similar, which is designed to helps those on lower incomes. Highly unlikely the higher rate band, for example, will be increased from 40% to 40.5%, so you can pay your extra £500...
You will already be seeing an increase in NI contributions in 2022.

Also, your increased taxation proposal exists for higher earners... where the personal allowance reduces towards 0 for those on six figure+ salaries.
There is also then the additional rate, pensions allowance tapers etc.
So no, no more income tax required.

The truly wealthy in the UK are likely to have significant assets outside of their PAYE income.

One issue which no gov has addressed is the ageing population & the impact of that on social services, housing, NHS etc. The

It’s because they leave the UK and by and large they are the ones who bring business to the UK.

This old trope. Firstly, nothing is trickling down and these people are becoming wealthier. Secondly, if people want to leave, let them. Sweden has one of the highest tax rates for those earning high salaries and yet still has the 6th highest number of millionaires per capita. We’re at nr 15. If it was just about taxes, surely all millionaires would leave Sweden and move here.

It isn’t done because governments are lobbied hard.

The truly wealthy in the UK are likely to have significant assets outside of their PAYE income.

this

Nope, if the government can’t survive on half of everything I earn, they’ll have to cut their cloth. I’m happy to come and help them cut budgets - no money to stonewall, reduce budgets for any police force recording non Crime hate incidents off the top of my head,

I would suggest that that is not EVER the government, ANY government

Which is actually the real problem.

Wealth inequality is a great predictor of the unhappiness level of your society

I agree with this, higher taxes can result in better provisions which makes society happy & better for all who live in it. I'm not sure why the super rich detest paying it so much.

I wouldn’t mind paying more to my local council as I would see the actual benefits of their spending in my own local community. I feel they are more accountable.
I categorically do not trust central government to spend the taxes I contribute wisely. They are very inefficient, just look at how much they wasted during the pandemic.
We already pay 45 per cent plus higher national insurance and have no pensions allowance. We don’t have a pension, we need to save and invest the little extra we have.
I think we need wealth taxes and get rid of the exemption on main primary residences for capital gains tax purposes. Also need to rejig council taxes.
Lots of young hard working people ten years younger than me are working all hours and their quality of life isn’t great compared to older generations. If they had houses and guaranteed pensions it would be another matter, but they really don’t.
I think if I lived in eg Sweden and had more faith in my government I would feel differently. I would be happy to live in a society where all people are encouraged and incentivised to work and there is excellent maternity leave for both sexes, excellent childcare and good elderly care.
In addition, I personally know some rich non doms and very rich people who hardly pay any tax compared to us as a percentage of wealth/earnings. So I resent being squeezed even more. But if I felt they were paying their fair share and what I pay is efficiently and fairly allocated and if I had more faith in our government, then yes by all means I would relinquish the little amount we are using to save for our own pensions.

@TwiggletLover

Higher rate tax earners pay an extraordinary amount of tax and get zero benefits for anything. I really don't think they can be asked to contribute any more. They need to be targeting businesses who are tax dodging.

Totally agree with this. Higher rate tax earners pay 60% tax. I get the sentiment to why you think this is the solution but its really not!

Also, its about time people stopped thinking that throwing money at the NHS is gonna fix everything. It's really not, it needs a complete overhaul. The NHS is working off a model that was brought in, in 1948. Things are completely different now and the NHS hasn't moved with the times. Throwing more money at it is not going to fix it!

Has anyone done the analysis of the impact of a high tax v a low tax regime long term? Worth looking into.

Raising taxes doesn't always raise revenues as not all variables remain the same. Look at stamp tax. The policy of taxing the rich by raising rates on the top end of the market actually reduced the tax revenues and stalled the housing market. It took a stamp duty holiday to get things moving again.

I'm not a higher rate tax payer, but I don't support raising the higher rate. I support reducing the gross inefficiency in the public sector and civil service. I had sight of a PhD analysis of the areas of duplication and waste within the civil service. The ££££££ that could be redirected if those inefficiencies were eliminated would go a long way towards solving many problems. Sadly we know this will never happen. It doesn't matter who is in power, Tory, Labour, anyone else, these inefficiencies persist across them all.

The truly wealthy in the UK are likely to have significant assets outside of their PAYE income

And? Increasing their PAYE taxes will still raise additional revenue. They tax system is unnecessarily complicated which leads to avoidance., sort that and a tax increase will help.

Unfortunately it's not just money issues that affect NHS, education though.
A lot of the issues are infact caused by deep rooted cultures that need to change.
I'm not a higher rate payer but I would be reluctant to pay into nhs or education at the moment until some fundamental changes.

"Where to put the money to best effect?"
I would suggest that that is not EVER the government, ANY government

You're right, it's not, but I see the predictable "Well I would do it, but's ..." have already started

Fortunately there's no need to donate to corrupt central governments when there are so many local ventures crying out for help, and if they're local it's much easier to keep an eye on what they're doing with the money and to see the effects in real time

Look at stamp tax. The policy of taxing the rich by raising rates on the top end of the market actually reduced the tax revenues and stalled the housing market. It took a stamp duty holiday to get things moving again.

That’s not quite what happened.

Tetly Yy.

I was served a plate of what looked like heart valves in NHS but breakfast was branded weetabix?? Branded?. The waste, the duplication etc...

”Well I would do it, but's ..."

Except I already said I do support charities.

Would work if the most wealthy didn’t have the means ‘work’ the system.

I think they feel they deserve it and anyone else would be as rich as them if they were as clever and worked as hard

Others are just insecure

Others don't see themselves as rich as they are too busy being jealous of people with more

Others are just very poor with money so always feel the pinch

You see so often on here that people can not imagine others lives and circumstances

I don't think it's a small amount of tax we pay though, I earn just under the 40% tax bracket and DH a bit over, so between us we pay loads of tax and NI. I would still be happy to pay more if it meant we could have secure NHS and public services, such as appropriate policing, diagnostic care and dentistry!