Rachel Reeves, Just Tell Voters Why Taxes Should Go Up – Then Do It | Polly Toynbee
IIt’s already late: just six weeks to set the stage for what’s to come. Everyone knows taxes will rise On November 26, Budget Day. Speculation runs wild, often maliciously designed to scare. Will she break her pledge not to raise the three big taxes? Even if the Chancellor keeps her promise, people already believe she has broken her promise. She (unwise) The promised tax increases were a foregone conclusion In the last budget, so better raise a huge amount now because she’s going to be cursed anyway.
In the old view, taxes are a certain thing: but what is uncertain is whether they threaten the death of this government. She is some £40 billion shortbut it does not lack very abundant advice. But even though everyone knows tax rises are coming, neither she nor the Prime Minister moves the political playing field to explain why this needs to happen and explain the options.
Above all, now is the time to highlight political first principles – the civic and moral virtues of taxation itself, which is not a burden but the price of civilization. Since this is inevitable, make necessity a political virtue. Remind people what their taxes buy, recount what cuts and austerity have done to the public sphere, and tell voters facts they don’t know: Britain is a country A nation with lower taxes From its neighbors, and it shows. Ask not what tax cuts would do for your pocket, but what taxes would do for everything that matters most in life.
On her 100th birthday on Monday, the right-winger paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher, who sparked the country’s taxophobia and led to massive wealth inequality. (A suitable souvenir is up for auction, Mother of pearl caviar set In a red leather box.) It redefined tax from the citizen’s contribution to society to the appropriation of money by the wasteful, greedy state. She used to say: “You will always spend the pound in your pocket better than the state will spend.” This is something the Labor Party must challenge, and remind people of basic life values. Ask voters what matters most to you? Security of family, neighbors and country. The certainty of being well treated in sickness, everyone’s children well educated for national prosperity and support if misfortune befalls them. Proud streets, parks and public spaces, with playgrounds, museums and galleries to enjoy. Your tax pound buys what the pound in your pocket can’t. This is a song about hope for the future.
Tax reform is the other tone, eliminating the irrationality of relief-laden injustice. Broad shoulders can carry more weight, but without pretending that the rich pay for everything. The Decision Foundation reveals that the wealth gap between the elderly (early 60s) and young people (early 30s) has narrowed. More than doubled since 2008This is a transformation that was not achieved through commercial projects, but rather through an unearned real estate boom. Look how the fortune turned out From public pockets to private pocketsCausing public misery amidst private wealth. These facts work needs to be mentioned.
Labour’s greatest regret, its original sin, was that ill-fated pledge Do not raise the three taxes collecting approximately 75% of tax revenues; Labor would have won the election anyway. Most authorities say that raising income tax is the least harmful to the economy, including income tax Institute of Financial Studies (IFS), National Institute of Economic and Social Research,Prof Sam Friedman From the London School of Economics, psychologist Peter Kilner And many more. But the answer appears to be no: Reeves has announced that he is not seeking any costs to raise the three banned taxes.
More sins? Why did they waste the opportunity to change course after they opened the treasury books on their first day and found a truly shocking level of fraud? There were no funds to cover the costs of 40 new hospitals and roads without budgets, Labor claimed that Jeremy Hunt’s National Insurance tax cuts were not funded, while all public services were exhausted, with councils sliding into bankruptcy – not through weakness but through sabotage. The opportunity was lost, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused Donald Trump to demand massive additional defense spending, in addition to his terrible tariffs. The IFS says all governments have colluded in “Conspiracy of silence“On the financial situation of the United Kingdom. She and others are calling for” Tax reform budgetNo more “directionless tinkering and half-baked reforms” for now: straighten council and property taxes, wealth-linked taxes, fuel and road taxes, and generous pension breaks for the rich. There has been no word from the Treasury Department about radical reforms.
When I reached retirement age, my payslip jumped without paying National Insurance. Why? All income should be subject to the same tax and National Insurance, earned and unearned, as pensioners, landlords, shareholders and the self-employed, with capital gains equal. Decision Foundation He suggests an ingenious compromise. Raising income tax by 2p while cutting National Insurance by the same amount, generating £6 billion from non-workers, protecting all working employees as promised.
There is no point in asking the audience: Poll commissioned by tax partners It shows that they always choose to tax someone else. Their top four choices were gambling, capital gains (only 0.5% pay), banks and VAT on private schools, all good but not enough. That’s why Labor needs to explain the hard tax realities of life.
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The finance minister’s inbox is filled with enough good tax proposals to prevent another year of this torture, enough to stave off the hellhounds of the bond market – and end the two-child benefit cap. Since higher taxes are inevitable, it is time to loudly announce the political meaning of her choices: protecting employees while taxing unearned income. He spoke of the virtue of taxation, spoke of the value of labor, and pointed out the pressing need of wealth in idleness to pay its dues.