A wealth tax to help pay for Covid? (Conservative Party Conference fringe event)

During the pandemic, UK government borrowing and spending rose to levels not seen outside of the world wars. The government have already announced almost £40 billion of tax rises this year, which will take tax revenues to their highest ever sustained level of national income. Yet even this is unlikely to be enough avoid public spending cuts, to meet the full costs of an ageing society, to deal with the various inequalities that have risen during the pandemic and to meet other challenges such as achieving net-zero emissions.

If the UK needs to raise more revenue in future, should it make more use of taxes on wealth? Even if the overall tax take doesn’t rise, should more be raised from wealth for distributional reasons? And, if we are to tax wealth more, should this be achieved by reforming current taxes, such as those on property, capital gains and inheritances? Or should the government bring in a new tax on wealth holdings? 

Speakers:

• Felicity Buchan MP, House of Commons Treasury Committee
• Emma Chamberlain, Wealth Tax Commission
• Stuart Adam, Institute for Fiscal Studies

Chair: John Barnett, CIOT