A Wealth Tax for the UK? Assessing Valuation and Liquidity Issues

The Covid-19 pandemic unquestionably has had a serious negative impact on public finances, with the latest estimate showing the UK government on track to run a £400 bn deficit. The pandemic has also deepened existing levels of inequality in the UK. The Wealth Tax Commission brought together academics from a range of disciplines including law and economics as well as policy makers, business people, tax practitioners and former government officials to evaluate the role a wealth tax could play in helping the UK government (and other governments) address the largest public finance crisis since the Second World War, and target inequality more generally: see https://www.ukwealth.tax/.

The project output consisted of thirteen evidence papers plus a large number of background papers, leading to a final report suggesting a one-off wealth tax payable on all individual wealth above £500,000 and charged at 1% a year for five years would raise £260 billion; at a threshold of £2 million it would raise £80 billion.  In all, over half a million words of work have been made freely available on the website, comprising the largest repository of research on wealth taxes anywhere to-date.

The panel members will discuss their two evidence papers on liquidity and valuation issues, before taking questions. See the links below to the most recent versions of the papers.

Stephen Daly, Helen Hughson and Glen Loutzenhiserdalyhughsonloutzenhiser_final_submission.pdf (Wealth Tax Commission 2021)

Glen Loutzenhiser and Elizabeth Mannloutzenhisermann_final_submission.pdf (Wealth Tax Commission 2020)

To register for this discussion, please email Agata Dybisz