Of the 12 proposals put to the British public to see which they would support in principle, the second most popular was a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth more than £2m, which garners the support of 69% of the public.
An overwhelming majority of the British public support a wealth tax, a new poll has found.
The poll, carried out by YouGov, found that 75% of those asked said they would support a wealth tax of 1% on assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn.
The poll findings come ahead of the Chancellor’s budget next month, with Rachel Reeves under growing pressure to raise funds to plug a fiscal black hole worth around £22 billion. The Labour Party’s manifesto ruled out raising taxes on working people, which include VAT, national insurance and income tax.
Recent YouGov data shows that only 14% of Britons would support an increase in VAT, while 22% apiece back increases in national insurance or the basic rate of income tax.
However, when it comes to a wealth tax, the majority of the public are in favour.
Of the 12 proposals put to the British public to see which they would support in principle, the second most popular was a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth more than £2m, which garners the support of 69% of the public.
The third most popular was an ‘exit tax’ for rich people relocating themselves out of the UK for tax purposes. YouGov states: “This would entail requiring emigrees to pay tax on all unrealised capital gains, with the UK and Italy being the only two developed economies that don’t have such a tax according to Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates, who set out the case for and against introducing an exit tax.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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