Money Distilled

The UK Already Has Quite a Few Wealth Taxes

Taxing wealth is harder than taxing income. We still seem to manage it pretty successfully. 

Can we tax property any harder?

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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Welcome to the occasionally award-winning Money Distilled newsletter. I’m John Stepek. Every week day I look at the biggest stories in markets and economics, and explain what it all means for your money.

So in yesterday’s pre-budget preview piece we had a look at income inequality and taxes. It turns out that any remotely objective observer would have to admit that the UK has a really rather “progressive” (in the sense that higher-earning people pay a lot more) income tax system, and that income inequality has fallen significantly since the financial crisis.