UK CAPITALIST
Calls for Covid windfall tax as billionaires enjoy bumper year during pandemicPhones 4u founder John Caudwell said Rishi Sunak should levy a 90 per cent tax on excess profits made during lockdown
A prominent billionaire has called on Rishi Sunak to levy a Covid windfall tax Tolga Akmen/Pool via REUTERS
By Sam Clark
May 23, 2021
Business and economics figures have called for the super-rich to be subject to a Covid-19 windfall tax as Britain’s billionaires experienced a record money-making year.
The Sunday Times Rich List revealed that the UK’s super-rich had a bumper year, with the combined wealth of the country’s top 250 wealthiest people growing by 21.7 per cent to £597.3 billion in the last year.
That equates to an average wealth growth of more than £1 million per day for each person on the 250-strong list, which was topped this year by investor Sir Leonard Blavatnik.
The boosted figures come at a time when millions of people have been furloughed and hundreds of thousands have lost jobs, triggering calls for a special tax on the super-rich.
Billionaire mobile phones mogul John Caudwell told The Sunday Times that chancellor Rishi Sunak should levy a one-off tax on those people who have benefited from the pandemic.
“If I were Rishi Sunak, I would say to those who have profited massively: ‘We want a major contribution from you for this year, a tax on the excess profits you made because of lockdowns.’
“They won’t have to worry about tax overall in the UK because the windfall tax would only apply to excess profits for the past year. It wouldn’t damage their share price. What it would do is raise hundreds of billions of extra tax, to help to fix the short-term crisis from which these companies have hugely benefited,” Mr Caudwell said.
Mr Caudwell suggested a one-off 90 per cent tax, saying such a measure would leave affected businesses “as well off as they would have been without the lockdowns”.
E-commerce businesses have benefitted from the lockdowns because high-street competitors were unable to bring in cash. The owners of online retailers like Boohoo, The Hut Group, Asos and Farfetch did particularly well in this year’s Rich List.
Mr Caudwell was joined in calls for a change to the tax system by George Dibb, head of thinktank the IPPR Centre for Economic Justice, who said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows the rich got richer just as millions of people were struggling to make ends meet. This only bolsters our view that the UK tax system simply isn’t fair.”
According to a Sunday Times analysis, a one-off tax of 5 per cent on all wealth over £1 billion would raise £19 billion for UK government coffers.
A prominent billionaire has called on Rishi Sunak to levy a Covid windfall tax Tolga Akmen/Pool via REUTERSBy Sam Clark
May 23, 2021
Business and economics figures have called for the super-rich to be subject to a Covid-19 windfall tax as Britain’s billionaires experienced a record money-making year.
The Sunday Times Rich List revealed that the UK’s super-rich had a bumper year, with the combined wealth of the country’s top 250 wealthiest people growing by 21.7 per cent to £597.3 billion in the last year.
That equates to an average wealth growth of more than £1 million per day for each person on the 250-strong list, which was topped this year by investor Sir Leonard Blavatnik.
The boosted figures come at a time when millions of people have been furloughed and hundreds of thousands have lost jobs, triggering calls for a special tax on the super-rich.
Billionaire mobile phones mogul John Caudwell told The Sunday Times that chancellor Rishi Sunak should levy a one-off tax on those people who have benefited from the pandemic.
“If I were Rishi Sunak, I would say to those who have profited massively: ‘We want a major contribution from you for this year, a tax on the excess profits you made because of lockdowns.’
“They won’t have to worry about tax overall in the UK because the windfall tax would only apply to excess profits for the past year. It wouldn’t damage their share price. What it would do is raise hundreds of billions of extra tax, to help to fix the short-term crisis from which these companies have hugely benefited,” Mr Caudwell said.
Mr Caudwell suggested a one-off 90 per cent tax, saying such a measure would leave affected businesses “as well off as they would have been without the lockdowns”.
E-commerce businesses have benefitted from the lockdowns because high-street competitors were unable to bring in cash. The owners of online retailers like Boohoo, The Hut Group, Asos and Farfetch did particularly well in this year’s Rich List.
Mr Caudwell was joined in calls for a change to the tax system by George Dibb, head of thinktank the IPPR Centre for Economic Justice, who said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows the rich got richer just as millions of people were struggling to make ends meet. This only bolsters our view that the UK tax system simply isn’t fair.”
According to a Sunday Times analysis, a one-off tax of 5 per cent on all wealth over £1 billion would raise £19 billion for UK government coffers.
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