Worried about rise of populists with magic money trees

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I saw a talk that Green Party leader did with Zack Polanski did with Richard Murphy, an accountancy professor who is much ridiculed for his crazy tax ideas and it got me quite worried.

I work closely with tax policy. Properly researched policies that look at both the tax raised initially but also the tax raised over time as the policies bed in and people change their behaviour accordingly and the policies discussed by both of these people were really worryingly destructive.

The wealth tax proposed by Zack would do untold harm to the long term tax receipts of the UK, hugely reducing the money we’d have to spend on public services. Recent polling says 75% of people think this would be a good idea. Then he proposed adding VAT to financial services. The financial services we in the UK offer are no different to those anywhere else in the world. Any international business would ship their business overseas overnight to avoid this tax. Same service 1/6th less cost. A business which provides 13-% of all UK tax take disappears instantly. And then there’s the totally unaffordable idea of UBI.

France is heading towards IMF bail out because politicians cannot face telling the general public that the retirement age and income tax has to rise to pay for an aging population. There are no other options. We are going the same way where politicians tell fanciful stories of what people want to hear that have no basis in reality. Take the failure of the welfare bill and the winter fuel allowance. These were sensible policies to address urgent, serious issues and yet no one seems to want understand them and take them seriously. One of the rebel MPs was overheard saying that she just doesn’t understand why we don’t just borrow more.

It’s scary stuff. This country is going down the pan rapidly if we don’t engage with these things.

This is interesting, and possibly far too complex for an internet chat, but can you explain why a wealth tax would reduce tax receipts in the long term? I haven't heard the specifics of Polanski's proposal but imagine he'd be targeting things like the large swathes of land in private ownership that aren't producing any revenue. If these were taxed it might incentivise owners to think of ways to either get them generating income (which would be taxed) or sell them (which would be taxed) Similarly commercial property; my town's high street, like many, is blighted with empty retail unit which the owners don't seem bothered about renting as the buildings aren't costing them anything to sit empty

Tbh there is no simple answer. we need to look at how we live our lives and expectations, of ourselves, others and the state.

There’s too many people relying on the state, and as AI gets used more and more it will get worse.. I believe that there. Should be an AI tax -usage of AI should never be open access and it should carry a heavy usage tax

Developers should be forced to build affordable (based on local wages) houses with each retirement village to be sold to local people.

Spending of fluff like diversity projects needs to stop, more accountability for local government spending. There’s so much wastage in bodies like the NHs - we need honest discussions about the model of the NHS.

Sell the land to whom? Someone who will l have the same problem? Often farming the land will produce a loss (if it is farmable at all) what about the private owners of sat Dartmoor - what would they do? How are they going to generate income from land? Working in international tax, I know wealth tax is invariably a disaster. If it’s possible to make an income off land people do. The empty shops aren’t there because no one can be bothered -they are there because no one is shopping on the high street. How would you like someone to make money out of them? Who is going to rent or buy them?

Richard Murphy is a fruitloop. Why anyone listens to him is beyond me.

@Staringintothevoid616 how has wealth tax been disastrous in international taxation? Has it, as op has suggested, had a long term negative impact on overall tax revenue or other issues?