Bemused by the news reports speculating what the Chancellor will do in the 30 October Budget, I’ve had a look at the paper she wrote as a backbencher in 2018, titled The everyday economy, to see if it holds any clues on the plan. Let’s take a look at the ‘Fiscal policy’ chapter, shall we:
‘We need a radical overhaul of the tax system because our current system of wealth taxation isn’t working.’
OK, that’s a bold start. What type of wealth taxation?
‘Council tax ... consider the case for its overhaul and replacement with a property tax, levied on property owners ... A land tax could help raise tax more fairly...’
So replace council tax with a land tax? Like the one proposed in 1909? And keep the current land taxes like SDLT? Yikes. Anything else?
‘Inheritance tax ... It needs to be either reset or shifted wholesale to a tax on the receipt of any gifts throughout a lifetime, making tax on all gifts equal and thus avoidance more difficult.’
Golly okay, anything on pensions too?
‘[H]igher rate pensions contribution reliefs could be restricted and legislation could require that 20 per cent of all pension contributions be invested in employment-creating opportunities in exchange for the tax reliefs currently available to pension funds.’
Wow. And capital gains tax, is that a wealth tax too?
‘Capital gains tax could be reformed, halving the annual allowance, having it paid at income tax rates and improving tax compliance.’
Goodness me. Income tax rates? There it is in writing on page 49. But hold on, how much would this raise. It must be enormous. Not all at once surely...
‘These reform strategies could raise over £20 billion per year of tax revenues.’
I see, but this was in 2018. Didn’t the PM complain that we now have the highest tax burden for 70 years? So we couldn’t do it now, could we? Not unless there was some kind of error. Some kind of £22bn black hole...
Bemused by the news reports speculating what the Chancellor will do in the 30 October Budget, I’ve had a look at the paper she wrote as a backbencher in 2018, titled The everyday economy, to see if it holds any clues on the plan. Let’s take a look at the ‘Fiscal policy’ chapter, shall we:
‘We need a radical overhaul of the tax system because our current system of wealth taxation isn’t working.’
OK, that’s a bold start. What type of wealth taxation?
‘Council tax ... consider the case for its overhaul and replacement with a property tax, levied on property owners ... A land tax could help raise tax more fairly...’
So replace council tax with a land tax? Like the one proposed in 1909? And keep the current land taxes like SDLT? Yikes. Anything else?
‘Inheritance tax ... It needs to be either reset or shifted wholesale to a tax on the receipt of any gifts throughout a lifetime, making tax on all gifts equal and thus avoidance more difficult.’
Golly okay, anything on pensions too?
‘[H]igher rate pensions contribution reliefs could be restricted and legislation could require that 20 per cent of all pension contributions be invested in employment-creating opportunities in exchange for the tax reliefs currently available to pension funds.’
Wow. And capital gains tax, is that a wealth tax too?
‘Capital gains tax could be reformed, halving the annual allowance, having it paid at income tax rates and improving tax compliance.’
Goodness me. Income tax rates? There it is in writing on page 49. But hold on, how much would this raise. It must be enormous. Not all at once surely...
‘These reform strategies could raise over £20 billion per year of tax revenues.’
I see, but this was in 2018. Didn’t the PM complain that we now have the highest tax burden for 70 years? So we couldn’t do it now, could we? Not unless there was some kind of error. Some kind of £22bn black hole...
