Is a wealth tax the only way?

[Cuppasoupmonster]

…of raising capital for proper public service reform and not just sticking plaster ‘solutions’. Just interested to hear others thoughts.

YANBU = yes it is
YABU = no it isn’t

No because it wouldn’t just take properly value into account.

thats the problem, the ones at the top who make the rules wont agree to anything that involves them taking a hit
once people get wealth & power they cling on forever, getting ever more wealthy & powerful😟

No, I never thought it would although the money could be used for immediate reform where needed (this would far from solve all its problems though).

Ah, the magical "JuSt TaX tHe "RiCh!" crap again.

I suppose, playing devils advocate, if the challenge was "how would this be made feasible/palatable?", I'd offer the following suggestions.

1. Digitise the Land Registry and allow owners to update it monthly with their assessment of the value of land and property.
2. Increase the number of council tax bands to infinity - one band for each £ of house value.
3. Charge council tax at a commensurate level to previous council tax bands (e.g. I currently pay council tax at approx. 0.5% of current value of house)
4. Allow people without a mortgage to pay their council tax with equity shares rather than cash. (e.g. in any year I could either sign over 0.5% equity, or pay the equivalent cash). This would provide 100 years of majority ownership for anyone who owned outright on commencement of the scheme - more than enough to prevent anyone losing their home.
5. Allow councils to borrow against the value of their minority interests in housing, to generate cashflow for services etc.
6. Allow councils to compulsory purchase any houses in which they have a minority interest upon death of the majority interest holder, at the price listed in the Land Registry.
7. Charge capital gains tax on any excess revenue over the owner-specified value of any house when it is sold - that would be the disincentive for artificially low owner valuations to reduce council tax liability.
8. Charge capital gains tax on any monthly increase in value of the property in excess of RPI/CPI/whatever index is preferred.
9. Allow councils to increase council tax to levels they feel are electorally sustainable.
10. Make councils responsible for more services, and rebalance central government spending accordingly.
11. In time, apply same logic to digital registers of other assets (stocks, shares, pension funds, boats, cars ... )
12. Voila - you have a wealth tax, introduced by stealth.

So total assets of 1.5m is extremely well off?

and not wanting to pay an additional, badly thought out, tax that might mean having to sell an asset you rely on to survive, when currently paying all existing ones is greedy?

But if the house was sold - due to downsizing, death, a move, whatever - that’s when a certain % would be claimed as tax, on top of SDLT obviously.

I plan to sell my flat. move out of London and buy somewhere with a bit more room and maybe a small garden. Anything left over will be to pay for care if I need it. Tax that and the amount I have for that and to buy another property will be reduced. As for paying it on death - that would be in place of IHT, I assume?

What you suggest is capital gains on principal private properties. How much of a percentage? I'd like to see some hard figures here because I don't think you've thought about this apart from rich = needs to be taxed more.

Just as an aside, the current chancellor's decision to vitually eliminate the CGT personal allowance will result in me pay an extra several thousand pounds tax over the next few years, and ex-DW will be paying an extra 20K, due to some shares in her employer she aquired many years ago when she wasn't even a higher-rate taxpayer. So the government has already made at least one canny move to raise tax on assets.

Increase the number of council tax bands to infinity - one band for each £ of house value
💝💖💖

not sure what you mean by this

You make the assumption that these services lack money.

I agree they need a vast budget, but from speaking to people in those sectors (and from hearing anecdotes), the amount of money is not the problem. It is how it’s distributed, allocated and spent is part of the problem.
Another major problem is the management, infrastructure, processes of running a large infrastructure are not suitable for the modern world.

Increasing taxes is likely lose support fort these public subsidised services and add to the calls to scrap NHS, state education and the NI and taxes that fund them

Ah, so it's greedy to want to keep what you've worked (presumably hard, and with sacrifices) and paid for with post-tax earnings.

But - it's not considered greedy to be the one taking away from the first group.

"You've got something I don't have. So you should give it to me. And btw, you're the greedy one for owning what you own and wanting to keep it".

Not necessarily aimed at you, OP - but your post here summarizes the prevailing attitude when it comes to wealth taxes.

I believe the money needs to come from multi million pound corporations, they need to pay tax in this country and it needs to be a decent amount. Not using loopholes to deprive this country of finances whilst paying out people ruubbish wages working in shocking conditions.

I dont think we should have this country being used for the wealthy to obtain properties they dont use or need.

The problem you have OP is you need a government that doesnt get funded by these people.
You need a government whos friends and family are not directly benefiting from these loopholes and laws.

You need a government that cares if the poor gets poorer while the rich get riche.

The people who these rules benefit, hold all the power so Until we have massive reform, this country will keep sinking to new disgusting lows.

@Ledwood85 you don’t ‘work for’ property gains they just happen because you buy at the right time, sit back 30 years and suddenly your house is worth double what it was.

Without reform as well, no matter how much more we get in generated from tax, it will still all go in the wrong places.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain this may stun you but I don’t have precise figures as this is a general chat.

So you’d just tax property? You said other assets, so how would you tax a pension, a car?

Of course. But in the short term it would pay for pay rises to stop yet more staff quitting, at least.

How would that work for people who sell their houses to pay for care in retirement?

so a childless couple well into retirement sell their house to downsize, release equity, or move into a supported care home, and you tax their assets so now they have less money to pay for that care or living expenses.

it’s ok though, because the gov’t would end up paying for them?

Here’s a real suggestion stop spending your time trying to figure out how to get your hands on other people’s money and use that time to earn your own.

Read the report! It’s interesting and saves me cutting and pasting everything.

Haha! You sound a little worried.

I’m asking you what you’re considering? What you think is a good idea? He you think it would work.

So you've got no idea what you'd define as 'rich' and no idea how it would work. Got it. Bit of a pointless chat, really.

Oh Mrs Danvers have the day off 😂 read the report and spit that lemon out.

I want to see large corporations taxed properly before they start in on individuals