Rights and taxes
It isn’t the first thing we think about when we think of child rights, but fair taxation and other fiscal measures are vital to make rights real.
The Conservative government claimed we couldn’t afford free school meals, wages for nurses in line with inflation or adequate support for children with special educational needs or disabilities. Yet gave away £45 billion in tax cuts, mostly to the wealthiest, which could have been used for these things.
This government claim that they cannot reverse the two child benefit cap, even though it causes high levels of child poverty, while at the same time not taking measures to raise the money.
We can afford to respect the human rights of children and families. We just need to decide to.
“States should set up a progressive taxation system with real redistributive capacity that preserves, and progressively increases, the income of poorer households.”
Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Towards better investment in the rights of the child (2021)
“The chancellor’s continued failure to ensure the super-rich pay their fair share is a misstep. The 50 richest families in Britain are worth £500 billion. A one per cent tax on the richest one per cent would create £25 billion. Black hole gone and vital money in to support and enhance the UK’s public services.”
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary
Unite response to Reeves’ budget (October 2024)
Cost of 2022 tax breaks, over 45% of which went to the wealthiest 5%
“Tackling poverty requires building a society that shares the gains from economic activity through restraints on excessive levels of enrichment at the top. The new Labour Child Poverty taskforce, to make a real difference, will need to advance a blueprint on the scale of the 1942 Beveridge Report, a plan that recognizes the links between how wealth accumulates and how people become impoverished.”
Tackle inequality
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.
“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.”
Emeritus Professor Prem Sikka
Left Foot Forward: To level up and boost the economy, let’s tax ‘capital gains’ like we do income (2021)
“There is a growing consensus that we need to tax wealth and capital better.”
“…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.”
“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.”
Fraud and tax abuse by wealthy cost estimated £400-1,500 billion since 2010
Huge amounts of tax from the richest are never collected.
Fraud almost quadrupled under Rishi Sunak, according to the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, up to £21 billion from £5.5 billion.
And in sharp contrast to the treatment of benefits claimants only the most minimal of checks was carried out on companies claiming under the COVID relief scheme. £219bn is classified as high or very high risk that it was fraudulent.
rights report on uk
[The UK should] “take strict measures to tackle tax abuse, in particular by corporations and high-net-worth individuals.”
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Sixth periodic review of the UK (2016)
“Last year [Amazon] made £27 billion revenue in the UK. Yet they are paying a fraction of this in corporation tax. This is happening in a country creaking at the seams for lack of investment. Everywhere you look, public services and the NHS are struggling.”