What other ways could Rachel Reeves have raised more money?

[Katypp]

As a former small business owner (thankfully former!), the additional costs would have crippled our company.
But according to some posters on MN, we should just have sucked them up from our profits and if we could not afford to do so, should not have been running a business in the first place. If only life were as simple as some (who clearly have never run a business) seem to think it is.

Anyway, I wondered if any other posters would like to contribute to a thread of suggestions of alternative ways money could have been raised. Specifics if possible, not general Tax The Rich type posts.

I'll go first ...

1. Restore employees' NI to the level it was before Jeremy Hunt tinkered with it last Budget. We've only had the uplift a few months so the pain would be minimal
2. Get rid of the pension triple lock and put pensioners on a level footing with other benefits increases.

@TheWildRobot yep, it’s laughable.

People seem to have no idea of the economic reality, we have major population demographic changes so immigration won’t be stopped by any government. Most people who receive benefits are working or pensioners. Higher earners on PAYE are already paying more tax than other European countries.

Not sure that’s true, learning disabled people can be part of the workforce with the right support.

Learning disabilities like dyslexia doesn't mean someone has a low IQ. I am not talking about a learning disability, I am talking about having a low IQ, you can't train them to do much to enable them to come off benefits.

windfall tax on oil and gas companies much much higher

I'm really sick of reading this on MN by people who clearly have no understanding of it. This levy means these companies currently pay 75% tax (rising to 78% in November). But yeah increase it more just take 100% of their profits and they will all leave and take their jobs with them.

I agree with most of this.

The child benefit income cap does need looking at because I don't think it's fair that DH and I could earn (as a couple) double what a single parent could before we started to lose any. So instead of £50k, I'd maybe say £75k, but that's total income, not just the higher earning spouse.

I think banning unofficial multiple cousin wives and the social aspect of step parents being a safeguarding risk and the associated costs, along their varuous taxpayer funded independent households burden on the welfare state would help enormously.

Absolutely. It's completely insane that this barely gets a mention now when you consider the impact the brexit has had - imports and exports both down 15%, and 4% reduction in productivity according to the OBR's forecasts. But god forbid any politician mentions it!

In our town, we have 12 phone repair shops. It’s ridiculous. They look at you like your crazy if you going to have your phone repaired, it’s clearly a money laundering front, yet no one does anything about it,

if they put time into cracking down that shit, it would be a start.

I would add in fuel tax - the amount of people switching to EVs mean that they are getting less from fuel tax every year,

id revoke the NI cut from Jeremy hunt,

add a 1% increase to VAT

add 1p to tax

make it mandatory for all new public buildings to have solar panels added, which would aid our reliance on fuel prices and provide a long term infrastructure, ideally, add them to all schools and hospitals

add in a £5 charge to see a GP for an initial appointment (not follow ups), which could limit time wasters. Or at least add a £75 charge for anyone who misses an appointment,

that way, everyone is targeted the same.

Are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Uber, Airbnb, TikTok etc all paying a fair rate of tax for their UK business?

@itsnotabouthepasta I think you can make very valid arguments for this, but increasing fuel tax, increasing VAT, and charging for GP appointments is not "everyone being targeted the same" because the impact will be huge for some people, and minor for others.

You can look up what our tax was spent on in 22-23. The top 3 things on the list are:

Health (211.6 billion) 19.8%
Welfare (208.8 billion) 19.6%
National debt interest (128.4 billion) 12%

That is just over 50% of our tax spending on those 3 things alone.

Our national debt is bound to go up with health and welfare spending that high so that will be more money thrown away on servicing the debt. I think we need to look at other European health care systems. No idea what to do about welfare but we can’t really afford to spend more on it.

The welfare costs are unsustainable.
Reduce immigration, make incomers learn English .
A penny on income tax for anyone earning over £35,000.
Increase as they have on capital gains , but not as high as the lower band going from 10 - 18%.
Personally I don't object to IHT on pensions , just make sure you spend it before you die , give money earlier to kids and get them on the property ladder .
Penny tax on fuel duty .
Then cut waste in public sector . Stop ridiculous job roles eg gender tsars
Quash Quango's

I really did hope that thus thread would not degenerate into Tax The Rich/stop MP's subsidised meals/random niche suggestions but it looks as if it's starting to go that way.
With a sprinkling of 'Typical Tory' thrown in when a poster doesn't agree with another.

It's apparent that the only way to save/raise the amount of money RR says we need is via a universal means, such as income tax, or a universal benefit, such as pensions. Tinkering with eg MPs allowances will go nowhere.

I agree with the posters who say free prescriptions need to align with pension age and other pensioner benefits need looked at, such as free bus passes for call etc (yes I know it stops isolation but we can come up with a 'but' for everything)

Scrapping the Christmas bonus is a good one - £10 is nothing to an individual but collectively costs millions to the country.

Any other good ideas?

The problem is, you can say that about just about everything.

I have no idea what you are trying to say here. Please expand?

There need to be more taxation on unhealthy food as long term it costs the UK economy billions. The nhs spends over £6bn a year on obesity related diseases yet unhealthy food is normalised in the UK even in hospitals and schools

The welfare costs are unsustainable
Reduce immigration, make incomers learn English .*

we need immigrants for demographics…

Personally I don't object to IHT on pensions , just make sure you spend it before you die , give money earlier to kids and get them on the property ladder

And then who funds the care needs of someone who has given their pension away?

Made pensioners pay national insurance like everybody else. Benefits limited to two children including child benefit. With immediate effect. Scrap ridiculous £10 pensioners Christmas bonus. Charge for missed hospital and doctors appointments.

Pensioners above working age should pay NI or call it a health & social care levy.
Free prescription age should not be 60.

The NHS is ruining all our lives. We are paying more and more into a system that doesnt work anyway. It needs reform and that means a health care insurance system as they have in Europe.

Benefits limited to two children including child benefit

Why should child benefit be limited to two children? It’s not going to save much money most people aren’t having two dc. Plus it’s not very much money. I think it should be a universal payment as it was in the past.

Corporation tax only just went up by 4% from 19% to 25% in April 2023( profits under £50 k still 19%)

The NHS is ruining all our lives. We are paying more and more into a system that doesnt work anyway. It needs reform and that means a health care insurance system as they have in Europe

It does need reform but will need huge sums to do this. Lots of people are paying for the NHS in terms of NI, the problem is our demographics.

We need a huge spend on council housing so those on lower incomes have secure housing and tax money stops going to landlords.

Stop Cash Only payments.