Lewis Goodall has suggested inheritance should be massively hiked so that other taxes can be reduced and people are incentivised to work.
As Rachel Reeves’ next budget slowly looms into vision over the horizon, it it widely accepted that the chancellor is going to have to raise taxes.
So plenty of people are coming forward with their own ideas about how else the public finances can be fixed.
READ NEXT: Jennifer Saunders delivers perfect takedown of ‘sewage pipe’ Nigel Farage
But here’s an extreme suggestion from Lewis Goodall that will no doubt divide opinion – raising inheritance tax to 100%.
Speaking on his LBC radio show, Goodall said the UK has got an “aristocracy of wealth.”
He continued: “So what I would do, I wouldn’t be opposed to a 100% inheritance tax. Or maybe let’s say 99%. My rule might be that if you can put it in 2p bags, then you can hand it over.”
Goodall conceded that he was “being provocative” but wanted to make the point about how it would take an extreme suggestion such as this to address the inequality in Britain today..
“I would not be against a far higher rate of inheritance tax than we have at the moment, which is 40% above a certain threshold,” he said. “I wouldn’t be opposed to putting that to 50%, 60%, 70%.”
The journalist explained that a huge hike in inheritance tax would have two major benefits.
“One, that helps fund public services, which actually helps level the playing field in achieving a true meritocracy,” he explained. “Two, it will help us reduce taxes on income, because at the end of the day I want to incentivise work, I want to incentivise productivity. I want to incentivise people to get up off their backsides and do more.”
He added: “You don’t have a right to inherit. You should have a right to work while you’re alive and get to keep more of your own money.
“That to me is more important, way more important than your right to just inherit some money from mummy or daddy that you did nothing to earn!”
In a thread on X, Goodall wrote: “Globally, we’re moving back towards an aristocracy of wealth, more akin to the 19th century than the 20th. Anyone who cares about social justice, about moving away from higher and higher levels of taxation on work, should be very concerned. Time to do something about it.”
He went on to list some “uncomfortable facts” about wealth in the UK as well.