Amid party divisions and issues with data, pulling existing tax levers could be a more politically palatable option
Pressure to go further on wealth taxes – by creating new modes of clawing at hoards of hard-to-reach cash – is mounting.
For starters, the fiscal picture is looking fairly bleak, with economists estimating that Rachel Reeves must raise £20bn – or even as much as £50bn – to meet her goal of balancing day-to-day spending against the revenue raised from taxation.
On the government backbenches, meanwhile, MPs want the chancellor to squeeze the richest in society harder. They even put forward an early day motion last month calling for a 2% annual tax on individual assets over £10m.
Yet introducing these kinds of taxes is often not straightforward, with the behaviour of the wealthy being hard to monitor and harder still to predict.
