0:00
So, it's a tax on assets, 1% on 10
0:02
million pounds or more or 2% on a
0:04
billion pounds or more. But I think what
0:05
was really striking there is the most
0:07
obvious win here is to bring capital
0:09
gains tax in line with income tax. The
0:10
reason why that's important is right now
0:12
we tax earned income more than we tax
0:15
unearned wealth. That means if you're a
0:16
cleaner, you could be paying more tax
0:19
than the person who owns the building
0:20
that you're cleaning. That's
0:22
Do I have to watch the whole thing? That
0:23
was Zach Palansky, leader of the Green
0:25
Party, um, speaking on ITV's Peston
0:28
show, setting out his new policy for a
0:30
wealth tax. I tell you what struck me,
0:32
this idea that capital gains tax
0:34
constitutes an unearned income, I can't
0:36
really get on board with. I mean, there
0:37
may be instances where that's true, but
0:39
the bottom line is that capital gains is
0:41
often t or is taxed differently to
0:43
income tax because uh, it recognizes
0:46
through the tax system the degree of
0:47
risk or investment or time that has gone
0:49
into generating return on your capital.
0:52
I'm not in favor of equalizing those
0:54
rates of tax. As for the wider point
0:56
about wealth taxes in general, I mean,
0:59
even this chancellor has said it's not a
1:00
good idea. It's never worked
1:01
successfully anywhere else. And she's
1:03
also said that we are already taxing the
1:06
wealthy and taxing wealth in a number of
1:07
ways. They've increased taxes on private
1:09
jets, on private school fees, and we
1:11
know that she's going to do a little bit
1:12
more come the budget in a few weeks
1:14
time. in Margaret Thatcher's final
1:15
outing in the House of Commons, she was
1:17
asked by a young Simon Hughes, the
1:19
Liberal Democrat MP at the time about
1:22
levels of inequality um during
1:24
Thatcher's Britain. And she said that
1:26
the honorable gentleman doesn't care if
1:29
the poor get poorer so long as the rich
1:31
don't get richer. And what she was
1:33
talking about there was the idea that
1:34
actually a rising tide does lift all
1:37
boats. It's not perfect. It's not as as
1:40
fair and as equitable as we would like
1:42
these things to be, but it's the best
1:43
system we've got. And a wealth tax would
1:45
undermine an awful lot more beyond the
1:47
bank accounts of the very wealthy.
