Time to tax wealth #GoodMeasure campaign
As I write this, on Friday 1st April 2022, a number of painful financial events are about to crystallise in the lives of ordinary working families in the UK. If only they were an April Fool’s Day joke…
From today, millions of households will be hit with rocketing gas and electricity bills. Their council taxes will go up. Phone, water and food costs are also on the rise. It’s a frightening time, especially for people already reeling from the aftermath of two years’ of pandemic-induced uncertainty, and it’s no wonder that the press has dubbed today ‘Bleak Friday’.
The energy price cap, which regulates how much energy providers can increase their charges, goes up by a whopping 54%, and council taxes by an average of 3.5%.
Against this backdrop, it feels cruel to the point of perversity for the Government to be ploughing ahead with increases in National Insurance Contributions. NI is a tax which penalises those who work for their livings, rather than, say, earning it through returns on wealth; dividends, interest, rent and the like – how can this be fair?
And adding insult to injury, NICs cost low-to-medium earners more than those who get paid the most – they’re capped so that high earners are exempt on their pay above a certain amount.
At Church Action for Tax Justice, we believe that Christian values call for those best off to share their abundance with the poorest; and in the society we live in, one of the key ways for this to happen is through the tax system.
Tax can, when properly designed and collected, be a most powerful tool for fighting inequality. Only two months ago, Pope Francis, on a visit to the Italian tax authorities, said that tax “must favour the redistribution of wealth, looking out for the dignity of the poorest, who always risk ending up being crushed by the powerful. Let us work so that the culture of the common good grows”.
We couldn’t agree more: but right now, that’s not what we’ve got. Instead, right now we’re part of a system where the wealthy are ‘protected’ from making a reasonable contribution to society, whilst the poorest are asked to give the most towards the ‘common good’.
This can’t go on: it’s so, so far from how the Lord wants us to relate to one another, and as Christians, we can’t turn a blind eye to these systemic injustices. Psalm 82 reminds us to “[d]efend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed”.
So we’re calling on this Government, instead, to introduce new wealth taxes on the UK’s richest 1% - we’re calling it the #GoodMeasure campaign, and we’d be immensely grateful if you would add your voice to ours; you can do so here. Will you join us in asking for a tax system that helps us raise up the poor and share the common good?
