Director @CenTaxUK and Professor @LSELaw. Trying to make tax understandable and help design a better tax system. Fellow @LSEInequalities and @TheIFS
London, UK
Joined July 2011
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This is the wrong take. Founding a business - any business - doesn't automatically mean you should get a tax break. That was the problem with the old ER, and remains the problem with BADR. Narrow targeting is sensible; but Founders Relief isn't targeting the right founders...
Here's an alternative that would be even narrower, but much better targeted - and simpler: centax.org.uk/capital-gains-…
Some people have misinterpreted this as support for the 'old' ER with £10m cap. It's definitely not that!
Unicorn Relief would have been narrow but simple (compared with FR!), and better targeted at the founders the UK should most want to incentivise.
centax.org.uk/capital-gains-…
Andy Summers retweeted
What is the government trying to achieve with its Founders Relief? If it's about building the next generation of British unicorns, and it wants to incentivise someone to create the next Revolut, why create a £10m relief that Nik Storonsky wouldn't even notice?
A Founders Relief capped at £10m isn't going to encourage someone to locate here who is trying to build a company worth £1bn. If the point is the super-high-value businesses, the relief needs to be uncapped.
centax.org.uk/capital-gains-…
Founders Relief wins the prize for the most complicated new relief I have ever seen, against stiff competition.
Exempting family homes (only) from IHT is an oddly illiberal policy. It expresses a particular view of the good life: I should be living in my "family home" til I die. Why? What if I dont want to? (1/3)
Maybe I *want* to downsize to be closer to my kids, or I just *want* to buy a nice car or a boat. Or a smaller house and a holiday home.
This policy is saying: nope, you shouldn't live that way, you should be remaining steadfast in your "family home" til the very end. Why? (2/3)
Not taking a view on whether IHT should be higher or lower overall. But if you want an IHT cut, this is just about the worst way to do it. Perfectly calibrated to prevent downsizing and (further) gum up the housing market.
“Nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home,” promises Kemi Badenoch
On top of that, couples will be able to leave an additional £1m tax free and there will also be no stamp duty when homes are bought, she adds
Follow live: bbc.in/4ATwqSu
Andy Summers retweeted
Several MPs raised questions on Tuesday with Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury @Dan4Barnet about potential adjustments to planned Inheritance Tax reforms, including a ‘Minimum Share Rule’, which we modelled in our recent report:
centax.org.uk/policy-brief-t…
Andy Summers retweeted
Important paper.
Our tax system is such a mess that there's broad agreement from the @ASI to the @NEF on how to make it fairer, simpler, and more efficient.
If Reeves did this at the Budget, she'd go down as one of our greatest Chancellors.
centax.org.uk/tax-reforms-fo…
Andy Summers retweeted
🚨 NEW🚨
We’re really excited to launch ‘Tax Reforms for Growth’ today along with experts from across the political spectrum.
Consensus on tax policy is rare, but we have a joint plan for fair, pro-growth tax reform in the UK🧵
centax.org.uk/tax-reforms-fo…
Andy Summers retweeted
Everyone's talking about tax rises - but what about tax fixes? In a pretty unusual intervention, @CPSThinkTank has teamed up with @CenTaxUK, @ASI, @IPPR, @NEF, @jrf_uk, @WeAreBrightBlue, @LabourTogether & @DanNeidle to argue for sweeping, pro-growth tax reform & simplification.
Andy Summers retweeted
'Can we design a tax system which taxes wealth and capital fairly and is pro-growth?' with @CIOTNews
🕐 1pm, today (Monday)
📍Exchange 10, Manchester Central
👉 @johnbarnettcta
👉 @JohnGlenUK
👉 @Summers_AD
👉 Chair: Nichola Ross Martin
Andy Summers retweeted
Join us Monday at 1pm for our CIOT/@CenTaxUK #CPC25 debate:
Can we design a tax system which taxes wealth and capital fairly and is pro-growth?
With @JohnGlenUK, @Summers_AD, @johnbarnettcta and Nichola Ross Martin
Exchange 10, Manchester Central (conf pass needed). Buffet lunch
Andy Summers retweeted
💼 Join us now at #Lab25 | How can we fund public services?
09:00-10:15 | Education Area 3, Museum of Liverpool / youtube.com/live/3Lb22MihhjU…
👉 @Dan4Barnet
👉 @YuanfenYang
👉 Heather Stewart
👉 @Summers_AD
This was also broadly the conclusion of Wealth Tax Commission (ukwealth.tax).
BUT last part is important: government should be doing serious reform of existing taxes on wealth. E.g. our proposal to raise >£10bil from CGT...(not just ⬆️ rates!) centax.org.uk/reforming-the-…
We worked on a similar proposal with @TheIFS before the last Budget, published here: ifs.org.uk/publications/capi…
Last October, government nudged the rate up to 24% but left all the other problems untouched. CGT needs major reform, not just tinkering.
Andy Summers retweeted
Frankly outrageous from the govt. This new, and I think unprecedented, ban on civil servants speaking in public will damage public debate, politics, policy making and the civil service itself.
What are they thinking?
instituteforgovernment.org.u…
Switzerland currently raises 1% of GDP from its wealth tax, equivalent to a bit over £500m per week for UK. (But doesn't have CGT or full IHT)
All this and more covered in the evidence papers of the Wealth Tax Commission (wealthandpolicy.com), available for anyone to read.
Your figure is shear fantasy. Show me anywhere in the world that’s had a wealth tax — plenty of examples — that has raised anything like £460m per week. You’re just making stuff up. And even if you got a fair whack in year one (tho nothing like your figures) you’d get peanuts by year 2/3 — because the wealthy would have scarpered. Also, even if you could magically conjure up all that extra money you’d waste it — as so much of the £1 trillion+ the government already spends is wasted by politicians who’ve never run anything.