Another year, another budget where Rishi Sunak and friends fail to address key tax injustices, like leaving capital gains tax extremely low, and like not levying a windfall tax on companies that made huge profits during the pandemic.

An article in the Guardian yesterday based on analysis by Arun Advani found that the Treasury could raise an extra £16bn a year if selling shares, property, and small businesses were taxed like salaries. It would also address tax injustices that saw the top 0.001% of earners pay an effective tax rate of just 21% in 2017 on their earnings of £9-11million. This was slightly less than someone earning £30,000, whose effective tax rate was 21.4%.

The crisis brought about by Covid-19 gives us an opportunity to push for more equitable tax systems and reforms, let’s not let it be squandered by our leaders.
 

Source: All data is from Advani’s research as reported in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/26/uk-shares-property-capital-gains-tax

 

27 October 2021 (UK Budget Day)