Streeting’s wealth tax could be very costly

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Claim: Streeting’s wealth tax would raise £12 billion a year.

Reality Check verdict: False

Wes Streeting has proposed a ‘wealth tax that works’, raising around £12 billion a year by aligning capital gains tax rates with income tax rates. That would mean an increase in the top rate from 24 per cent to 45 per cent. He says ‘a pound made from simply owning assets should not be taxed less than a pound made from a hard day’s work.’

There are a few problems with his proposal. It would mean huge tax rates on assets that hadn’t actually made money, after inflation. It reduces the incentive to take investment risks that make us all richer – though Streeting has proposed allowances for ‘genuine entrepreneurialism’. It would raise rates of double taxation, on corporate profits and on investments made with income that had already been taxed. And there’s another big problem: it might not raise any money.