A former Labour minister has mentioned she needs Rachel Reeves to contemplate the “evidence” behind introducing a wealth tax within the UK.
Anneliese Dodds, who give up as worldwide improvement minister in February over Sir Keir Starmer’s resolution to slash the abroad help finances, mentioned she believed it was “important” that the federal government considers “who has the broadest shoulders”.
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Ms Dodds, who additionally served as shadow chancellor when Labour was in opposition, mentioned she had been “a bit sceptical about some of those claims for a long time because, of course, wealth is taxed in the UK”.
Nonetheless, she mentioned work carried out by the Wealth Tax Fee in 2020 had checked out numerous forms of worldwide wealth taxes and the way it might be potential to ship one in a UK context.
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‘Rachel Reeves would hate what you simply mentioned’
She added: “I would hope the Treasury is considering that kind of evidence, as well as other changes that have been put forward.”
The previous cupboard minister additionally mentioned that tax proposals outlined by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to Rachel Reeves ought to be “considered”.
In a memo that was leaked to the Each day Telegraph in Might, Ms Rayner urged to the chancellor that she enhance taxes, together with reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and the next company tax degree for banks.
“We’ve seen the deputy leader of the Labour Party, for example, put forward suggestions as I understand it,” Ms Dodds mentioned.
“I think it’s important for all of those to be considered now.”
Ministers have signalled they won’t usher in a wealth tax to stability the books, with Enterprise Secretary Jonathan Reynolds branding the suggestion “daft”.
“But the idea there’s a magic wealth tax, some sort of levy…that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.
“Switzerland has a levy, however they do not have capital features or inheritance tax. There isn’t any form of magic. We’re not going to do something daft like that.
“And I say to people: ‘Be serious about this.’ The idea you can just levy everyone. What if your wealth was not in your bank account, what if it was in fine wine or art? How would we tax that? This is why this doesn’t exist.
“There’s loads of populism out about this, and I am pissed off. I see colleagues generally say this in parliament and I say: ‘Come on, get critical.'”
Ms Dodds said that while she had not spoken directly with Ms Reeves about a wealth tax, she believed the “trade-off now we have to contemplate in a world of plenty of troublesome trade-offs is doubtlessly making some huge and vital adjustments early, or having to make many tactical adjustments by way of the parliament and doubtlessly being pressured into a few of these troublesome choices anyway afterward”.
