Three-quarters of Brits support a wealth tax policy proposed by the Green Party, a YouGov poll has found.
The wealth tax, amongst a number of other tax initiatives, has been found to be massively popular with the British public according to the latest YouGov findings.
The research and data analytics group questioned the British public on a number of tax related questions, including proposals for new tax initiatives.
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Unsurprisingly, the results were overwhelmingly in favour of taxing the rich, who’d have guessed!
75% of Brits said they would support a wealth tax of 1% on assets above £10m and 2% on assets above £1bn. This is the exact same wealth tax as that proposed by Zack Polanski’s Green Party, who themselves are enjoying a surge in the polls.
Other initiatives that the majority of Brits were in favour include:
- A tax on homes worth more than £2 million – 69%
- An “exit tax” for people who are relocating themselves out of the UK for tax purposes, whereby they are required to pay tax on unrealised capital gains (i.e. on the increase in the value of their investments) – 60%
- Reform council tax so it is proportionate to the exact value of the home (as opposed to the current system based on which value band it falls in) – 56%
- Pegging the level of the tax-free threshold for income tax, and the levels at which you go up to the next higher rate of income tax, to rise with inflation – 52%
- Increase employer’s National Insurance tax rates to 20% for foreign workers (with exemptions for health and care workers, and very small employers), while keeping it at 15% for British citizens – 50%
Other initiatives that were less favourable with the public concern matters of council tax, stamp duty and tax levels.
These included:
- Making property owners pay council tax rather than tenants – 48% in favour
- The merger of income tax and National Insurance together into a single tax – 43% in favour.
- Scrapping fuel duty and replacing it with a road use tax, whereby road users pay for the distance they travel on public roads – 38% in favour
- Abolish stamp duty, which is paid in one lump sum upon the purchase of a home, and replace it with a monthly land value tax based on the value of the site on which the home sits – 34% in favour
- Reducing the top rate of tax to be less than 40% – 29% in favour
- Scrapping different income tax levels and replacing them with a “flat” income tax that is set at the same level for everybody – 20% in favour