I earn well into six figures. I pay less tax as a percentage of my income than my employees do because capital gains is taxed lower than income. That is indefensible.
We have a country where nurses use food banks, schools hold bake sales to buy textbooks, and the army is smaller than it has been since Napoleon. And every time someone suggests raising taxes the entire right wing media machine screams that it will destroy the economy.
Raise the top rate to 50p. Align capital gains with income tax. Close the carried interest loophole. Introduce a proper wealth tax on assets above 10 million. I will personally pay more. I can afford to. And so can every other wealthy person in this country who benefits from the roads, the NHS, the legal system, and the educated workforce that their taxes are supposed to fund.
The money is there. The political courage is not.
Discussion (2)
Sign in to join the discussion. Debate and humour are both very welcome.
Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →
The bit I struggle with is that when governments raise tax on the wealthy it never actually lands on the wealthy. It lands on people like me who are doing OK but not rich, because the proper millionaires have an accountant and I have a spreadsheet from 2019 and a headache.
If you can design it so it actually hits the right people I'm in.
That said, the capital gains / income tax gap is indefensible and it's the main way wealthy people pay less proportionally than nurses. Close it.