The Sunday Times Rich List this morning detailed the huge sums of wealth concentrated in the hands of the UK’s super rich.
The 350 richest individuals and families in the UK hold combined wealth of £795 billion. “A sum larger than the annual GDP of Poland”, The Sunday Times comments. Meanwhile 3.1 million emergency food parcels had to be handed out to feed people in the UK in the year up to March. A record high. The Rich List makes for hard reading in this context. I have good news for you though. People aren’t resigned to this spiraling wealth inequality. They know that the wealth of the super rich can and must be taxed more – to save our public realm. Public back higher taxes on the rich Our new research shows there's a strong public appetite for taxing the super rich more. A majority (64%) of people in the UK would be more likely to vote for a political party at an election if it was committed to higher taxes on the wealthiest to invest in the NHS and public services. We put our specific wealth tax proposal to people, and they supported it. 72% of respondents indicated their support for a 1-2% tax on assets over £10 million that would affect around 20,000 people and could raise up to £22 billion a year. You can read more about our six wealth tax policies that could raise £50 billion a year. Shut down unfair loopholes People also support closing tax loopholes exploited by the rich and powerful. More than four in five people (83%) think that the government should prioritise closing down tax loopholes that are ways of working the system to legally pay less tax. Our research identifies just 5 tax loopholes used by the super rich, which if closed could raise £7 billion a year. Taxing the wealth of the very richest is a vote winner and a sensible way to help fix the country. With an election looming, politicians would be wise to acknowledge this. A victory in our tax havens campaign A senior government minister has spoken out against tax havens. We think the pressure from our campaign is getting to him. Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell said tax havens like the British Virgin Islands must reduce financial secrecy in their jurisdictions. In comments to think tank Bright Blue, Mitchell said the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies must introduce public registers of company ownership to reduce money laundering. His comments follow our mass-email campaign to MPs, demanding an end to tax avoidance in British territories. Over 4,500 of you have sent messages to your MP – demanding action against British tax havens. Including 9 emails directly to Andrew Mitchell MP.
Ask your MP to stop tax havens:
We are making great progress. MPs are reading and being convinced by the emails you have sent. For a government minister to come out in favour of ending tax haven secrecy is truly amazing and testament to our strength. It is important that MPs understand that this is an issue constituents truly care about. The more emails they receive, the more pressure they will be under to act.
Majority of people more likely to vote for party committed to higher taxes on the wealthiest to pay for NHS and public services
17 May, London - A majority (64%) of people in the UK would be more likely to vote for a political party at an election if it was committed to higher taxes on the wealthiest to invest in the NHS and public services. This is one of the findings of new public opinion research released today that also shows the public support major changes to the tax system. New public attitudes research, commissioned by Tax Justice UK, and undertaken by FocalData, shows the overwhelming popularity of taxing the wealth of the richest. It comes at the same time as the launch of the Sunday Times Rich List. This year’s ‘Rich List’ demonstrates the massive accumulation of wealth by a tiny minority of people and families in the UK. Rachael Henry, Head of Advocacy and Policy at Tax Justice UK said: “Taxing the wealth of the very richest is an extremely popular policy - a vote winner - and an incredibly sensible way to help fix the country. People in Britain are really struggling and so are public services. The NHS is wounded, getting an NHS dentist is akin to a lottery win, and GP surgeries are creaking under pressure. Politicians need to see the wood for the trees and use the tools available to them to inject life back into the country.” When told that a 1-2% tax on assets over £10 million would affect around 20,000 people and could raise up to £22 billion a year, 72% of respondents indicated their support for such a tax. 73% would also support such a tax to invest in the NHS. Additionally, 57% would support charging the same tax rate on income that comes from wealth as income that comes from employment. A 1-2% tax on assets over £10 million, alongside equalising income tax rates are just two of a suite of 6 wealth proposals put forward by Tax Justice UK that could raise up to £50 billion a year. Participant interviews, using FocalData’s novel artificial intelligence interviewer - FD_Chat - also demonstrated the strength of feeling about inequality in the UK. 52 people, spanning different ages, incomes, regions, ethnicities and 2019 vote were interviewed to understand their opinions. They were asked 5 broad questions covering inequality and wealth, increasing taxes on the wealthiest, and what they think is holding politicians back from doing so. Interviewees expressed a concern around increasing wealth inequality and the negative implications it has on society and politics. There was also a sense of urgency expressed for better tax policies and regulations to address these challenges and redistribute wealth more fairly. The interview data shows a strong sentiment for systemic change, both economically and politically, to mitigate wealth inequality and its consequences. This research builds on a previous Tax Justice UK report ‘Talking Tax’ which delves into public attitudes toward public services, wealth and tax. When FD_Chat interviewees were asked about their thoughts on taxing the wealthiest in society, respondents regularly spoke of increasing taxes. A participant that didn’t vote in the previous election said ‘I believe [taxing wealth] is the only thing that can reduce the inequality that exists’. However, some narratives centring on those with wealth working hard and being deserving of their wealth did come through. Though when asked about a specific 1-2% tax on wealth, interviewees regularly stated it was a fair, or reasonable proposition. A 2019 DUP voter put forward the view that they ‘don't agree that people should be paying higher taxes on money they have worked hard to earn even if they are wealthy’. However, when asked about a 1-2% tax on assets over £10 million, they said they ‘believe the interest people would be making on those investments alone would cover the 1-2% tax and therefore they may not feel much of an impact of this’. Interviewees were also asked what they thought was holding politicians back from implementing higher taxes on the wealthiest. Themes emerged around conflicts of interest, fear of losing donors, and that politicians themselves stood to lose out which may be holding them back. When asked their perspective on reasons holding politicians back from increasing taxes on the wealthiest, a 2019 Conservative voter simply stated ‘lobbying, influence’. When prompted further, they expanded to say ‘when you have a lot [of] money you have a lot of power and influence. The mega rich can easily pay to get their interests heard above anything else, and in certain circumstances have their people in Government. Cronyism I suppose’. One participant, 57, who previously voted Labour at the 2019 election said that ‘any one looking at the papers or the news or listening to the discussions at parliament would understand that political ideologies are integral to how policies are put together re[garding] taxation. Notes to editors:
We need your help. Billions of pounds are disappearing into tax havens around the globe every year, and we need to take action.
Via loopholes and shady accounting, big corporations and the world’s super rich are squirreling away up to £380 billion a year – that should have been paid in tax – into tax havens, according to our allies at Tax Justice Network. This is a vast sum, which could be used to build hospitals and schools, reduce poverty and improve lives around the world. Instead it is becoming ‘dirty money’ – hidden in secretive places like the British Virgin Islands – boosting the bank balances of corrupt politicians, gangsters and oligarchs from across the globe.
Email your MP and demand they take action against British tax havens:
This often happens through shell companies, which are the getaway cars for crime, corruption and tax dodging. Secretive shell companies allow people to hide their identity - and their dirty money.
The good news is that we can do something about it. We are not powerless to stop this dirty money. The UK government can stop dirty money Our government has the capacity and responsibility to tackle the flow of dirty money into British tax havens. Let me explain. Many tax havens, like the British Virgin Islands, are British Overseas Territories. The UK Parliament has the ability to pass laws that apply to these places, in certain circumstances. In 2018 the Anti-Money Laundering Act required the UK government to make the British Overseas Territories be more transparent about their shell companies. The UK government said this would happen through the publication of public registers of ownership. These registers would reveal who owns the companies registered in the Overseas Territories – and therefore who owns the money stashed in the companies. They would hugely reduce the level of financial secrecy in these places. The UK, and many other countries, already have such transparency measures in place. The UK government said that the British Overseas Territories must have these registers in place by the end of 2023. The Territories all agreed to do this. However very little progress has been made. Only Gibraltar has introduced a public register of ownership. You can pressure the government to act Our government has a duty to help – and pressure – the British Overseas Territories to create these public registers of ownership. We want you to write to your MP and ask them to pursue the issue. Your MP can write to the Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, and insist he take action – and pressure the Overseas Territories to introduce these public registers. If your MP knows that you, their constituent, care about tax avoidance in the British Overseas Territories they are much more likely to take action. We have built an easy-to-use tool with which you can send an email to your MP. It includes a letter that has all of the important details for your MP to understand the situation properly. It only takes a few minutes to send.
Stop dirty money flowing into British tax havens:
Hundreds of billions of pounds disappear into secretive tax havens every year – lost tax revenue, which should be used to fund better public services and poverty reduction globally.
The British Virgin Islands is the number one corporate tax haven. It is a British Overseas Territory, for which our government has responsibility. Through inaction, our government is enabling huge amounts of tax avoidance via the British Virgin Islands and other Overseas Territories. As citizens of the UK we have a special ability to demand an end to these tax havens. We can hold our government accountable. Please consider sending a letter to your MP, to alert them to this situation – asking them to pressure the Foreign Secretary to take action.
Pressure is mounting on billionaires around the world to pay more tax.
Last week government ministers in four of the biggest countries in the world proposed a 2% minimum tax on the ballooning wealth of billionaires. The ministers of Germany, Brazil, Spain and South Africa said by doing this $250 billion could be raised every year to fight growing poverty and inequality. They are calling on other countries to join their campaign. Growing wealth gap Their intervention shows there's a growing international appetite for wealth taxes on the super rich. It’s easy to see why. During Covid, the world’s ten richest men saw their fortunes double. The world’s 3,000 billionaires now hold combined wealth of £11 trillion, while hundreds of millions of people live in extreme poverty. The gap is widening too. In the last twenty years the income gap between the top 10% and the bottom 50% has nearly doubled. The rich want to pay more tax Wealth taxes are popular among a growing number of super rich individuals – they recognise how unsustainable the situation is socially, economically and ecologically. Patriotic Millionaires represents many of these rich individuals. They advocate for wealth taxes. Abigail Disney, a member of the group and heiress to the Walt Disney fortune, wrote in The Guardian last week that: “It is only right that the funds to mitigate further damage [to the planet] and develop green energy systems come from those most able to pay – and who, by the way, are the ones disproportionately driving it with their jet-setting, gas-guzzling lifestyles.” Patriotic Millionaires took to the streets of Washington DC last week and projected their wealth tax message onto public buildings. We’ve won before Concerted global action against the ballooning wealth of billionaires may feel difficult – but the tax justice movement won a similar battle not long ago. Three years ago 136 countries agreed a minimum global corporation tax rate of 15%. Although not perfect – less well-off countries got a poor deal, and the 15% rate is far too low – this agreement does show that joined up action to tackle abuse is possible. It’s helping to stop big corporations jumping from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to avoid tax. The same can be done with billionaires. If enough countries pass similar wealth tax legislation, the world’s billionaires will have nowhere to shelter their wealth. |
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