COVID-19: Those earning above £19.5k should pay more tax after pandemic to help fix UK finances, says think-tank

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Your thoughts on this?

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-those-earning-above-19-5k-should-pay-more-tax-to-help-fix-finances-12130088

How should the debt be clawed back? What would you do if you were government to raise the money?

increase the tax of those who worked throughout the pandemic last.

Well they’re much more likely than the furloughed to still have their jobs, so that would be ... difficult.

BeakyWinder So you expect low income workers to have tax increased and not those (like myself) that can suck it up?

Increase poverty. Wonderful idea.

@scottish83

Targeting those who have benefited most from Government money would be a good place to start. So furloughed workers, restaurants who took part in eat out to help out, etc.

Those of us who have helped kept the country running (we aren't all key workers, though a lot of us support key worker activities) by working and paying taxes should be insulated from such debt repayments.

I totally agree that we should target those who have benefited most from Government money. MP's, the cronies they handed to jobs to without competition (or ability), and those who made £millions out of supplying PPE.

And just in case you haven't noticed, furloughed workers paid taxes, as did restaurants and their workers. The number of redundancies and collapsed businesses already - and more to come - are testimony to the fact that they haven't been insulated from anything. Unlike the rich.

@BeakyWinder

Turn it around then, increase the tax of those who worked throughout the pandemic last. If I get financially penalised for grafting my arse off for the last 8 months I will actually protest for the first time in my life. I'm so bloody sick of this government.

If I get financially penalised for being told to stay at home against my will - I'll protest with you. I don't think many people whatever their situation unless they are lockdown loving boring bastards are happy about this.

You can't put extra tax on furloughed workers! They are probably the ones in the most precarious roles coming out of all this. We should all pay. Of course it sucks and nobody wants to.

Also agree you can't put extra tax on people who stayed at home and did as they were told. Any of these things which divide us more as a society will have a greater cost.

Cost of coronavirus thus far £210bn.

Cost if brexit thus far £200bn + est. £130bn for every subsequent year.

I think we should increase the tax on brexiteers...

On a more realistic note, even with the cost of covid the UK is still one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. The only reason there are underfunded local services and hungry children if political decision making. There is money enough to pay for everything essential without raising taxes. The extra pledge for defense, trident, bailing out the financial sector, awarding contracts to multinational management consultancies, selling off public companies for a quick profit....

@FixTheBone I would love a tax on brexiteers. That’s the only tax increase I would support

@scottish83

Targeting those who have benefited most from Government money would be a good place to start. So furloughed workers, restaurants who took part in eat out to help out, etc.

Those of us who have helped kept the country running (we aren't all key workers, though a lot of us support key worker activities) by working and paying taxes should be insulated from such debt repayments.

So people on minimum wage who work in retail and hospitality should bear the brunt of things despite the fact theyve already suffered so much from the anxiety and insecurity being in those industries has brought. I think that's outrageous and I say that as someone who works for the NHS and so was lucky enough to have job security throughout.

Also, if you think about it, what has covid actually cost?

Think about the country as a whole, has the furlough money been burned? Buried? Shot into space? Nope it's all still there, doing the rounds, again political decisions as to whether it is flowing through local companies or to bank accounts outside of the UK...

If you had just taken out a large loan, would the first thing you did be to restrict your income?

No.

I am not a fan of trump by any means, but we do need to look at how America recovered from the GFC.

Tax cuts stimulated the economy.

We need to grow out of this debt.

@FixTheBone

Cost of coronavirus thus far £210bn.

Cost if brexit thus far £200bn + est. £130bn for every subsequent year.

I think we should increase the tax on brexiteers...

On a more realistic note, even with the cost of covid the UK is still one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. The only reason there are underfunded local services and hungry children if political decision making. There is money enough to pay for everything essential without raising taxes. The extra pledge for defense, trident, bailing out the financial sector, awarding contracts to multinational management consultancies, selling off public companies for a quick profit....

I would join EEA EFTA to lower the cost of Brexit to the minimum.

We can't go back to the EU. But we can't afford sovereignty.

Also, we need to give NI back.

@FixTheBone

Cost of coronavirus thus far £210bn.

Cost if brexit thus far £200bn + est. £130bn for every subsequent year.

I think we should increase the tax on brexiteers...

On a more realistic note, even with the cost of covid the UK is still one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. The only reason there are underfunded local services and hungry children if political decision making. There is money enough to pay for everything essential without raising taxes. The extra pledge for defense, trident, bailing out the financial sector, awarding contracts to multinational management consultancies, selling off public companies for a quick profit....

Agree with you, many people have bought into the ‘austerity’ policies. How about we abandon HS2, the journey from london to birmingham is short on the normal train and everyone is working from home. Why are we ploughing ahead? I don’t personally think 19.5K is necessarily too low, a couple with joint income of 40k with 2 tax free allowances would have an ok take home pay. A single parent on 19.5k not so much, so might be better to have a lower limit plus the ability to claw back through benefits according to circumstances.

I can't believe someone actually said to deduct money from people on benefits.

I've volunteered at a food bank. There are people literally starving and malnourished in this country. But yeah sure go ahead take it off the pittance most live on ffs.

my thoughts? fuck off.
money given to chums should be taken back. Above 19.5k means that you can afford to pay your own bills, rend privately mostly and not have day-to-day money issues. Tax them more and they will fall.
Tax amazon and the likes who pay peanuts in this country and take the profit out. Tax JRM and friends. Hell, tax anyone who has 1m+ in a bank account. But not he barely surviving low middle class. It'll break them .

I've been working through the pandemic even when I had Covid. Didn't take sick leave as working from home and felt bad with people losing jobs etc. Now I find they want to tax me more yet I know people who could have carried on working but decided to furlough themselves as they wanted the time off. Doesn't seem fair to me.

Anybody beyond the tax free threshold ought to be contributing.

Honestly, I'm surprised threshold is as high as £19.5k.

inevitable really, I hope it’s staggered and I hope it’s a percentage so those on more pay more

^ All that.

I think everyone should pay more tax in equal measure. The wealthy should not pay more than low earners. It's a duty and if the country needs more money it needs to come from us.

And I say this as someone who earns 17k

It's a complete fantasy the notion that the government will have to set about paying off the 'Covid debt' anyway. The UK has been up to it's eyeballs in debt for decades, and there was no sign of us even scratching the surface of it prior to Covid to begin with.

This is really quite clever, it is one percent on working people, after the Ni rebate. Crucially it means unearned income will be subject to an additional four percent. This means people drawing an pension who are over the State retirement age would pay the four percent extra if their total pension income is >19k

If we are really all in this together then everyone should pay towards it. Personally I've worked throughout and not had a penny from the government, we even paid tax on our bonus/danger money that our employer paid. If I have to pay towards the cost of furlough then surely the people that actually received it should contribute as well regardless of what they earn. Obviously people on low wages can't be expected to pay the same as higher earners but I would like to see everyone contribute in some form no matter how small. Whilst the government are at it maybe they need to look at companies that have used the furlough scheme and still made profit and get the money back, I know ASOS have paid their furlough back so maybe others can follow suit.

Scrap NI, scrap CTG and treat all gain as "income". Introduce 2 tier VAT, with a higher rate on genuine luxury items such as jewellery, leisure vehicles (including boats), etc. Introduce on-line sales tax.
Drop HS2, Trident replacement, referb of Parliament (there will be plenty of empty office space)

Why not? Let's add it the the decade long pay freeze I've had, with a new one now coming and the increased pension contributions that landed a few years ago.

Good job performance related pay makes no difference to me now or I'd be utterly fucked this year.

That threshold is too low and disgusting. What about sorting out tax loopholes for the richest individuals and companies? Oh wait, that would actually be most of the Tories.

Brilliant. So the workers are now scrapping amongst themselves about which of us should or shouldn't be paying more to cover the costs of lockdown.

Meanwhile the large corporations that profited massively out of this - the amazons and so on, get away with paying next to fuck all again.

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