Wealth taxes could raise £37bn for UK public services, campaigners say

Tax Justice UK calls on Rishi Sunak's government to introduce five reforms targeting the richest people

Rishi Sunak's new government could raise up to 37bn to help pay for public services and the energy bills support scheme if it introduced a string of wealth taxes", according to tax equality campaigners.

Tax Justice UK called on the government to introduce five tax reforms targeting the very wealthy, who the campaign group said had done really well financially" during the coronavirus crisis and national lockdowns, rather than seek to save money with further cuts to public services.

Equalising capital gains tax with income tax could raise up to 14bn a year. At present many well-paid people who earn an income from their investments such as stocks and shares can pay capital gains tax at a rate of 20% rather than income tax, which is as high as 45% for earnings over 150,000. CGT also applies to income from selling a second home or stocks and shares.

Applying national insurance to investment income could raise 8.6bn.

Closing loopholes on inheritance tax could raise 1.4bn.

Scrapping the non-dom regime and taxing their offshore income could generate 3.2bn.

And introducing a 1% tax on super-rich people's assets over 10m could raise an additional 10bn.