Timing

Tuesday 29th September: 13:00 - 13:30

Chair

Dr Phil White, Patriotic Millionaires UK

Speakers

Dr Ben Tippet, Kings College London

Topic

A £10bn wealth tax on the super-rich - how can we make it happen?

The super-rich in the UK, like in many OECD countries, pay lower effective tax rates than ordinary workers. At the same time, the wealth of the richest 300 households has increased from around 5% of GDP in 1989 to 16% today. This discussion outlines a response to these challenges: a minimum 2% average annual tax on the total wealth of households with more than £100 million in wealth. The tax would raise around £10 billion in 2026, equivalent to 0.3% of GDP and almost one-third of the projected government current budget deficit. As only the richest 1000 households would be taxed, the usual criticisms against historic wealth taxes – administrative infeasibility, tax evasion, valuation problems, illiquid assets and a dampening of business innovation – do not hold. The proposal would include a 10 year post-emigration period under which households would remain liable for the tax, building on recent similar changes to inheritance taxes. Given the small numbers of households involved, the tax could be implemented quickly to stop preemptive flight. Revenues remain substantial under a range of alternative assumptions regarding the tax model and behavioural responses.

About Ben Tippet, Kings College London

Ben Tippet is a Lecturer in Economics and Wealth Inequality. He is a council member of the Progressive Economy Forum and a committee member of the Post-Keynesian Economics Society. He is author of Split: Class Divides Uncovered (Pluto Press: 2020). He is also Principal Investigator on a British Academy/Leverhulme funded project building a new dataset on the wealthiest families in the UK from archives of The Sunday Times Rich list. He co-leads the Technology, Inequality and Development Research Group.