Proposing asset tax

Proposer
philipjohn
State

Accepted

Vote Score

3

Age

3637 days


@philipjohn edited manifesto/economy.md - almost 10 years ago

The personal income tax allowance will be set at the level of a full time living wage (currently £14,458.50 based on 252 working days of 7.5 hours per day at £7.65) and will rise inline with the living wage.

The rate of capital gains tax for individuals will be harmonized with the rate of tax on earned income, and all allowances for each will be pooled, in order to ensure that work is rewarded and incentivised to the same extent as investment.

Investigate viability of moving from an income-assessed direct taxation to wealth assessed direct taxation. Those who earn significant salaries but do not accumulate wealth or assets beyond a single property (ie ensuring a genuine 'trickle-down' to the service industries) should be taxed less. This means hard-work is still encouraged, high-earners are not forced abroad, but those who sit on vast sums of accumulated wealth would be penalised instead.

Capital Gains Tax will be replaced by an Asset Tax, based on an annual self-assessment. It will apply to those whose assets amount to greater than £350,000. Debt, such as mortgages, will be offset against any assets and the remainder will be assessed as the taxable value of assets. This ensures those who accumulate wealth purely through accumulation of assets, rather than direct income, are contributing to the economy whilst avoiding an unnecessary burden on the average family.

VAT

Investigate possible reforms to the way VAT is applied to goods and services with a view to making it less regressive and, ultimately, to remove the poorest from having to pay entirely - even if this requires renegotiating our obligations to the EU.

philipjohn

@philipjohn - almost 10 years ago

The basics of a proposal really, I think it might need more but interested in thoughts.

Floppy

@Floppy - almost 10 years ago

This seems like a sensible idea, though I am not an expert on such matters. I think it would be a superset of a Land Value Tax, which is something I was considering proposing, so I'm in on this one. 👍

PaulJRobinson

@PaulJRobinson - almost 10 years ago

I'm much more in favour of taxing wealth than income, as it states in the section that would be replaced. Could we make it clear that income taxes would be reduced as part of this process in order to rebalance the system?

@philipjohn edited manifesto/economy.md - almost 10 years ago

The personal income tax allowance will be set at the level of a full time living wage (currently £14,458.50 based on 252 working days of 7.5 hours per day at £7.65) and will rise inline with the living wage.

The rate of capital gains tax for individuals will be harmonized with the rate of tax on earned income, and all allowances for each will be pooled, in order to ensure that work is rewarded and incentivised to the same extent as investment.

Capital Gains Tax will be replaced by an Asset Tax, based on an annual self-assessment. It will apply to those whose assets amount to greater than £350,000. Debt, such as mortgages, will be offset against any assets and the remainder will be assessed as the taxable value of assets. This ensures those who accumulate wealth purely through accumulation of assets, rather than direct income, are contributing to the economy whilst avoiding an unnecessary burden on the average family.

Investigate viability of moving from an income-assessed direct taxation to wealth assessed direct taxation. Those who earn significant salaries but do not accumulate wealth or assets beyond a single property (ie ensuring a genuine 'trickle-down' to the service industries) should be taxed less. This means hard-work is still encouraged, high-earners are not forced abroad, but those who sit on vast sums of accumulated wealth would be penalised instead.

The rate of Asset Tax for individuals will be harmonized with the rate of tax on earned income, and all allowances for each will be pooled, in order to ensure that work is rewarded and incentivised to the same extent as investment.

VAT

Investigate possible reforms to the way VAT is applied to goods and services with a view to making it less regressive and, ultimately, to remove the poorest from having to pay entirely - even if this requires renegotiating our obligations to the EU.

philipjohn

@philipjohn - almost 10 years ago

I've just reinstated the harmonisation bit which I think needs to stay as it's very sensible.

Is that what you meant by the rebalancing of the system @PaulJRobinson ?

PaulJRobinson

@PaulJRobinson - almost 10 years ago

Not quite, but good enough. I'd like to go further and have income taxes levied at lower rates than wealth based taxes, as we should be encouraging people to increase their income but discouraging the accumulation of assets. But I'm happy enough for a 👍

mjnaber

@mjnaber - almost 10 years ago

Yes, I think you're right. I just worry about those unscrupulous people that might turn assets into pension fund by some devious route to avoid paying tax, but I guess that addressing that is too much detail for what we're doing here. 👍

Floppy

@Floppy - almost 10 years ago

👍 from me also. Yay!