False solutions
“The UK won’t accept profiteering on war on crisis.” That’s exactly what we told the Mirror recently in a front-page splash. The article mainly covered research from our friends at the End Fuel Poverty Coalition showing how some super-rich individuals have seen their fossil-fuel invested wealth grow by millions since the start of the crisis.
Shareholders and investors in these profiteering industries will be laughing all the way to the bank. Because higher stock prices means a big pay day. In fact, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are already reporting huge profit surges. And, as if that wasn’t unfair enough, they’ll pay less tax on their windfall, than you will on your stagnant wages. That’s because in the UK, taxes on income from work are higher than taxes on income from wealth (Capital Gains Tax). That’s one of the reasons the rich keep getting richer, while the rest of us struggle.
And it’s not just the fact that the highest tax rate on capital gains is 24%, whilst the highest rate on work is 45%. Those of us that work for a living also have to pay taxes like NICs, whilst those that collect shareholder returns, don’t. This system means those of us who work or receive social security payments like pensions, often end up paying the same or often even higher than most multimillionaires and billionaires. That’s how former PM Rishi Sunak ended up paying the same effective tax rate as a nurse or teacher in 2023— despite an income 52x higher.
With your help, we’ve been campaigning to close the loopholes and redress these imbalances, by equalising capital gains tax with income tax (and adding NICs to income from investments). We’ve made some progress, such as seeing CGT rates rise in 2024, but there’s still work to do. Which is why we need the Tax Justice People’s Lobby to keep raising its voice in every corner of the country.