Dan Goss

UK Mansion Tax—The Beginning Of A British Wealth Tax Regime? Rachel Reeves’ new mansion tax signals the UK’s shift toward wealth taxation—modest now, but with big implications for property, policy, and fairness.

The mansion tax "is as much symbolic as it is fiscal.. it establishes a political and administrative precedent."

This shift in the overton window is a key reason we proposed the mansion tax. It lays the groundwork for a wholesale proportional property tax or a more ambitous wealth tax in future

There are a lot of tax reform Reeves could make which address wealth and would be entirely justified and could also have growth benefits, e.g on CGT, investment income, property, pensions

These should come alongside taxes on middle earners

Wealth inequalities also map onto inequalities in income and so compound the overall feeling of inequality.

Also the CGT data here is only taxable gains. Doesn't account for gains on pensions or primary homes.

Capital gains, inheritance and investment income have all become more important, are spread v unequally, are not captured by the article's data, and are taxed less

Eg see below by Advani and Summers.

And the top 0.1% is often seen as the most egregious inequality

warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/econ...

Britain’s tax system combines the worst of the US and Scandinavia The UK’s experiment in eating the rich while shrinking the state has left everyone worse off

We do need higher tax on middle earners, but this analysis misses:

1) Wealth's importance vs income has ballooned & it's distributed twice as unequally

2) Wealth can boost income in ways this data doesn't capture

3) Income from wealth is taxed much less than income

www.ft.com/content/75ce...

Times letters: Chancellor’s tax raid on the middle classes Write to letters@thetimes.co.ukSir, At the Royal College of General Practitioners’ recent annual conference, I recounted something a GP approaching retirement told me: as in practices across the

These letters to The Times saying how bad it is that govt may be taxing NHS GPs (b/c Reeves may equalise NICs between employees & limited liability partnerships (LLPs))

Ridiculous and untrue. The reported reform would NOT apply to NHS GPs as they cannot be LLPs!

www.thetimes.com/comment/lett...

Rachel Reeves’s second budget needs a narrative of fairness to justify tax rises | Heather Stewart The chancellor should reach for the language of solidarity and social justice that this government tends to recoil from

Spot on from @guardianheather.bsky.social in @theguardian.com, quoting @centaxuk.bsky.social, @demos-uk.bsky.social, @resfoundation.bsky.social and @theifs.bsky.social. The right tax reforms, well designed and communicated, can raise revenue, reduce wealth inequality, boost fairness AND drive growth

Great to see our tax research featured in the Guardian yesterday!

Check out the report for more details👇
demos.co.uk/research/sol...

Only if they trade up in the same region right? So people still gain if they (1) keep their home till death and give it as inheritance (if its sold by the inheritor, which inherited homes tend to) or (2) move to a region with lower house price rises. That's likely to be a v significant % of people

Don't think this is right? A London buyer in 2010 may have paid a premium due to lower council tax, but their house price has since continued to grow faster than elsewhere while their council tax hasn't (= a gain).

As long as house prices continue to diverge more than CT bills, homeowners gain

We also have papers coming out on:

(1) The Story to Tell about Tax Rises - how to frame tax rises to gain public trust, based on tests of mock-up BBC articles announcing tax rises
(2) The Attitudes of Small Businesses to tax rises, based on a representative survey of SMEs.

Keep your eyes peeled

These reforms would help sort the fiscal mess. BUT if we do want 'national renewal' (essential if govt is to rebuild public trust) much more is needed

Are broad-based tax rises needed? Would the damage to public trust be worth it in the long run? We discuss these questions in an upcoming paper

Solving the Tax Puzzle: Eight popular, pragmatic, pro-growth tax reforms to plug the fiscal hole Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

So, a set of popular, pragmatic and pro-growth tax reforms could not just to plug the fiscal hole, improve the tax system and avoid raising the headline rates of broad-based taxes...

They could boost public confidence in government at the same time

Read the detail here:
demos.co.uk/research/sol...

Support is also seen among key electoral target groups

... or with arguments for and against the reform

... with contextual data about what the reforms does and how much it raises...

The changes would also be popular, whether you present people with a one-line summary (as below)...

The changes would benefit economic growth by:

(1) broadening neutrality in the tax system
(2) introducing new allowances to encourage investment,
(3) ending disortionary incentives to shift income into capital gains, move abroad or hold onto assets until death

By (1) tackling tax advantages for landlords and partners relative to employees, (2) ending harmful and distortive incentives in capital gains tax, (3) ensuring high-value properties pay a fair share & (4) properly taxing the social harms of gambling, govt could raise up to £21.3 billion

There's lots of 'national renewal' chatter at Labour conference, but this obviously needs BIG public investment. The elephant in many rooms (or pods?) is the fiscal mess standing in the way...

We've just laid out a path to sort that mess w/o any broken promises 🧵

www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Some great opporutnities currently open to join an incredible team at Demos! Check them out👇

- Budget tax rises raising £36bn: drives 18% of Labour defectors away

- Cut winter fuel payments raising £1.5bn: drives 35%(!) of Labour defectors away

The public really, really do not like spending cuts!

Really enjoyed appearing on the @financialfairness.bsky.social podcast last month, discussing the recent changes to inheritance tax

Check it out below👇!