Rights & revenue

Wealth tax, asset taxes, increased capital gains tax and windfall taxes are some of the possibilities which could transfer some of the wealth from the richest in society to enable the government to comply with their human rights obligations.

“History paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like. For all our well-being – rich and poor alike – it’s time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich.“ 

Open letter signed by millionaires and billionaires
In Tax We Trust 

“There is a growing consensus that we need to tax wealth and capital better.“ 

Tax Justice UK 

Capital gains – profit made from the sale of assets such as shares and property – are taxed at a lower rate than income. So people pay more tax on money they make from going to work than on investments. This policy benefits the wealthiest in our society. 

“Any government committed to levelling-up or reducing inequalities has to change the way capital gains are taxed. A recent report from the Treasury’s official advisers said that, if we scrapped the tax concessions on capital gains and taxed them the same way as earned income, then we could raise £14bn a year more. This is twice the amount that Rishi Sunak plans to save by cutting Universal Credit.” 

Lord Prem Sikka  
To level up and boost the economy, let’s tax ‘capital gains’ like we do income (Left Foot Forward)

“…we estimate that [a net wealth] tax on just the top 1% of wealthiest households in the UK could raise £70bn to £130bn a year – more than enough to pay for a high-quality universal care service, the NHS and more.” 

Dr Ben Tippet
It’s time for a new tax on the UK’s wealthiest 1% – arguments against it don’t add up (Guardian 2021)