that £12,500 tax free should be £20,000 tax free imo, the idea that you could live on on 12k nowadays is unreasonable 😊

The wealthiest people that ive come across have always struck me as the least generous yet the poorest would almost always help you out if they could. What a messed up society we live in.

You don't ask rich people if they have got enough money and expect to get a reasonable answer. NO-ONE feels they have enough money. Just hand them the bill and they have to cough up or cough off.

"We should tax frivolous things ... like the newest TV" - there is a tax on TVs sold via retail (VAT at 20%). "Like new things ..." - if you buy secondhand from a private seller you don't have to pay VAT. "Maybe there should be less tax on fruit and vegetables" - fresh fruit and vegetables are zero-rated i.e. no VAT.

If we clamped down on tax avoidance, we wouldn't need to be asking if the rich should be paying more tax. Let's first start with them paying what they owe, like the rest of us, and then we can look at ratios.

The woman talking about higher taxes on frivolous items is on the right track. But rather than TVs and designer clothes, I'd hike tax on, high performance cars, expensive property sales, frequent flyers, private jet flights, expensive jewellery, expensive hotel stays. In short tax the items that are already very expensive.

Love how rich people always make the point that if you work hard, you'll get rich eeh, no. You have to be incredibly lucky, well connected, very charismatic and or unscrupulous to get rich. Plenty of people spend their whole lives working hard, physical jobs and have nothing to show for it at the end.

The richest in this country avoid tax via loopholes and poor accounting rules in place. It’s astonishing to me that people on paye working 9-5 pay more tax (%) than millionaires who have inherited property rentals providing no productivity to the economy. Furthermore, foreign investors are avoiding tax by purchasing property (especially in London) under business names. I’d like to see a crackdown but unfortunately our greedy politicians benefit from these loopholes so realistically the rich will never pay more (%) tax.

You can almost gauge some of these people's wealth by their sheer ignorance.

I earn £14.44 per hour and live payday to payday so when I pay tax they are taking 23% of everything I have every week. I'm happy to pay my tax as it's essential for society but I wonder if a billionaire would be happy to pay 23% of their entire wealth just once

I earn 28k a year. I pay 8.5k a year in NI, Tax and private pension. Leaving me with 19.5k for the year. Rent (including bills) per year: 7200. Phone PY: 700 Prescriptions PY: 200 Food: 2000 Travel/Commute: 1000 Clothes: 200 House supplies/toiletries: 200 Credit card: 400 Basically: I’m left with 6K, to live my life outside of the essentials. That’s going for a pint, it’s seeing your mates, it’s going to the cinema. It’s going out on a date. Where am I supposed to be able to save to buy a house? Where am I supposed to feel able to go on holiday? The UK has one of the highest tax burdens on the continent. Sod the rich, I worry about paying bills each month, I’ll never own a house. Tax their wealth, tax the ridiculously rich. Bring the quality of life in line and take the pressure off the people who like atlas seem to just carry the world.

The imbalance between rich and poor is way worse than I can ever recall. This is not about lack of money, it’s political choice. The super rich should look to the French Revolution to see what happens when that imbalance becomes unsustainable and see a fairer system ad an insurance policy to protect their wealth

It didn't take long for lipstick lady to go from hero to heel. "I dont mind paying more"...to its all those migrants fault. No. Nothing to do with 13 years of austerity or structural decline of the UK.

Wealth is, more often than not, NOT a result of people’s savings

If the government stopped all these multi million pound shady contracts to their pals there may be no need for extra tax

According to the Resolution Foundation, a 1% tax on those with wealth above £10 million would raise around £20 billion. That would do a lot to improve health/social care etc. imagine what 5% would do….

“Wealth is more often than not a result of people’s savings” 😂😂😂😂

Everyone knows that the wealthiest individuals in UK simply utilise off-shore tax havens to secure wealth. Offshore company with bank account, point of product consumption in UK is normally the way it goes. The individuals then move to somewhere like Dubai, Monaco, or closer to home in Isle of Man / crown dependencies and pull all the money in from there. Problem is the British created these tax bypassing instruments. There's trillions of £ swishing through these companies - taxing that is the answer. It will never happen though because the people who control those laws also utilise these methods.

I remember being 16 and making £100 a week, thinking I was rich 🤣

Subscribed. Well done on your videos. The ones I've seen have been consistently great quality and thought provoking.will definitely be watching more. Thankyou

I'm on £40k and work for the NHS and I actually managed to get an affordable (if we stretch the meaning of that) flat in Kensington and Chelsea. I actually consider this a decent wage and I love my job, but I'm from the North so it was such a shock. I have never encountered such a rude, disconnected bunch of people in my entire life. Despite the wealth, it's like everyone is out to get you regardless, or they look down on you. I've never seen so many supercars and ridiculous custom plates, Harrods charges £50 for fish and chips, and walking around you're more likely to overhear Russian than English. I had to leave, not only because things got so much more expensive after Truss, but because it's incredibly toxic. The number of homeless people too is shocking.

Tax revenue last year was the highest ever at 786 billion , conversation should be around how the government spend it. I’m not up for giving rishi more money to piss away on dodgy mismanaged government contracts, and poorly researched and executed schemes such as hs2.

Having assets of £500K or £600K does NOT make you wealthy these days. There are plenty of folk in London who got virtually GIVEN council houses under the Right To Buy sceme that are worth that amount. Wealthy would be 3 or 4 million.

It's just astounding how many people still don't understand the difference between wealth and income.

People need to remember that when you build a business it’s on the backs of minimum wage workers. When you reach the top it’s your duty to give back (in tax) to help the people at the bottom and this country.

If that Irish guy could tell me where those 5 quid trains are that would be great.

I said it before and I'll say it again, love your channel, and thank you for your work!

I’ve been poor, had money then been poor again. I’m now what would be considered well off. I do pay 45% and get no tax relief on earnings above that bracket. I have to pay (and am fortunate enough to be able to) private health care because there are no NHS dentists where I am and no ability to get a GP face to face. We are looking to have children but I will get no benefits or support. I bought a house to do up but I pay 30% more due to the ‘big house tax’. If I lose my job the benefits system won’t help me due to the cost of my house. Something does need to be done though as we have slipped into a world where we have aristocrats once again in the guise of billionaires. Companies earning unparalleled amounts but paying no tax. Energy companies hiking prices but showing record profits as people sit freezing in their home. Inflation is rising due to this but also greed, the constant need of companies to keep ‘growing’ and show share price increase. When this doesn’t happen they are deemed a failure and people are made redundant to keep the margins high and prices are increased which make services unaffordable and don’t provide value for money. I think social media is also to blame as everyone thinks they should have a ‘instagram lifestyle is is no longer content with what they have. They compare themselves to other and consequently suffer mentally with a sense of low self worth. If maybe we implemented a short term tax on the wealthy to solve the issues then maybe it would go down better. A 5 year plan to raise the funds to sort out the NHS, downsize, modernise and increase pay across all public sectors. Get rid of 40% of the useless people and pay the dedicated ones more (make the job more appealing) and introduce automation around back end tasks. I don’t agree with taxing people on wealth as they will have already (or should have) paid tax on those earnings. We also need to start teaching people that materialism is damaging to our health. Happiness is in a strong family and good friends and not comparing yourself to others who are probably as miserable as you. Hopefully these hard times end. I feel sorry for those struggling to make ends meet and single parents worrying about feeding their children while working 2 jobs.

they need to close loopholes for companies hiding profits overseas not chase private individuals. companies arent going to pick up and leave a revenue stream cuz they're paying more tax. the other problem is companies saying no to paying tax then the tory government giving them severe discounts on their tax bill in exchange for party donations. thats where the tax needs to be collected. if you want to target the ultra wealth add a new tier of stamp duty for homes over £10m or something.

Wealth is not a result of savings. It's the result of holding assets, such as properties and inherited generational wealth

People on low income may not pay a huge amount of income tax and national insurance BUT as a proportion of their income, they pay a lot of VAT, fuel duty, insurance premium tax, alcohol and tobacco duty. It's the stealth taxes that clobber the least well off.

That old man is a literal vampire 🧛‍♂️

8:10 there already is a tax on 'frivolous' goods, its called VAT, which incidentally is not charged on fruit and vegetables. This lady is like most people, well meaning but ill-informed.

Think the unfortunate reality for a lot of these people is that you cant have low taxes and great public services. The guy saying that £80k is 'not a lot for London' when the average salary in London is £39,886. £80k was top 5% of earners in 2019, I think its fair to say if you're in the top 5% of earners you should absolutely pay more in tax.

I'm in favour of: - Enforcing tax for the highest earners better. - Taxing extreme wealth. - Flat tax rate for income tax, the current system is designed to push you back down.

Savings? With inflation? Savings won’t make you rich. They just park the money in properties and other investments. More often than not they simply inherited wealth or exploited working class to accumulate wealth. As an employee you won’t avoid taxes. As a business the richer you are, the more tax avoidance techniques appear in your toolbox.

Thanks. Proof that people's wealth has nothing to do with their intelligence.

I hope that guys daughter gets help with her autism diagnosis and education. Failing children is this countries speciality these days, forget the next Stephen Hawking, Shakespeare or Issac Newton, kids aren’t even able to get basic health care and education.

I notice how their high street is fully occupied and vibrant, almost like the de ath of the high street, is actually due to the a squeeze on consumer spending.

I love the concept of taxing luxury / designer goods more and less on essentials! I work in retail buying and actually things like fruit and veg have zero tax, although chocolate and crisps are 20%!

I’m fully behind taxing the rich, but London is like Monopoly money with insane housing costs. Raise taxes on the rich, but don’t forget to tackle the insane costs of living in areas.

The argument of "if you ask for too much, they'll just go elsewhere" - has there ever been a single shred of evidence that this happens in significant numbers? Where are "they" all going to go if their life and family is in the UK? How many of the super-rich are going to cross the threshold of wanting to leave the country and their life, for the sake of paying a little more (that they can afford to do).

Some of these people don’t realise that having a nice TV is about as good as it gets for normal people.

If they put a mega tax on botox, that woman would be skint 😂😂

I use to work in that area. All the people there really live in a bubble. They use to call themselves poor when they really weren’t. Some of them used to talk down to me when they found out I grew up in a council estate. Snobbery at the max.

I love the woman describing existing VAT.

"Tax frivolous things, but less tax on fruit and veg". Pretty sure fruit and veg are zero rated for tax anyway. I don't think putting a higher tax on TVs is going to fix the country anyway.

A better question would be "do you think unearned income should be taxed less or more than earned income?" Most people think unearned income should be taxed MORE but in fact it is taxed much less

What a surprise they mostly said no.

Problem is the three essentials - energy, food and housing, are getting more expensive. Want to get people out of poverty, these should be as cheap as possible. Having enough to feed a child, keep them warm during winter with a roof over their head should be a right, not a privilege.

nobody should pay more tax, politician should be less wasteful and less corrupt instead.

That first chap is completely wrong r.e. wealth being based on savings. In the recent zero percent interest environment we've had in this country, it's based on investments - and often stealing the labour of those at the bottom. When I worked terrible jobs in the 2010's I'd get zero percent interest at the bank, and people I'd never met were making more than me from my own hard labour.

The proposal ive seen is a land / property tax which would replace rates Quote The result of 30 years of inertia has meant the UK has a property tax system that is regressive, inter-generationally unfair and accentuates the north-south divide. According to the lobby group Fairer Share, someone living in a modest £150,000 a year home in Bolton is paying over £2,700 a year in council tax - £1,000 more than someone occupying an £8m home in London’s Westminster.

"People choose to work"... Do people also choose to live off the interest and returns of their immense wealth?

Interesting to see the stark contrast between the Kensington we have here in the UK and the Kensington in Philadelphia USA

We don't need to increase Tax. The Government need to learn to budget properly and prioritise interior affairs and the standard of living of britons.

The fact she mentioned things like televisions or designer clothes but not Yachts or private jets says everything.

That Irish fella hasn't taken a train in Ireland for a long time by the sound of it

Everyone needs more than their salary to be financial stable. The best thing to do with your money is to invest it rightly, because money left for saving always end up used with no returns.

I don’t think anyone should be taxed more. Whether wealth is inherited or worked for. Just because someone is doing very well in their life, doesn’t mean they should be taxed more. Poor people stay poor because it’s easy. To be rich is hard, unless inherited. But that’s life.

To the woman at 9minutes, there is already no VAT on healthy food.

I got some positive news for the women talking about taxes on frivolous spending and less tax on fruit and veg: - We already tax a range of consumer goods via VAT (20%). This includes things likr TV, confectionary, alcohol, entertainment etc. - Fruit snd Veg are subject Zero-Rate VAT (0%). If you buy these products you will never pay VAT.

You have to tax the rich, why we still question this is beyond me, you can literally see it in our voting cycles, economy is in the trash so labour gets in, they tax the rich, push that money down the system, create jobs, people and the economy grow into lower middle class average. Then because everyone doesn't want to be poor again they save as much money as possible, vote conservative to cut taxes back and that money going into the economy stagnates, crashes and back we go to being poor and voting labour back in. This idea that "trickle down economics" works does not happen in the modern age because people no longer become rich through their own town and cities investment in them, you can become rich selling to China day 1 so nobody has loyalty to reinvest money back into their local area's anymore, they just sit on that cash or spend it on yachts in Monaco they spend 2 weeks of the year at. The rich obviously don't want to give up their money but if you don't force it through the system the economy crashes constantly so you have to do it and it's not like it's not sitting in a bank doing nothing anyway a majority of the time.

The issue is not people worth £500k, it's people worth £10-15million upwards. As to people saying they will just take their money away out of the country - you can't physically take a 5 bedroom house, or a football ground, or whatever out of the country, can you?

"People on low incomes, shouldn't complain" 🤐 Yikes.

These people are so snobby it's painful

People's misconception is that you can 'just tax the rich'. It doesn't work that way. Rich people work globally and simply run businesses in other countries, and have bank accounts in other countries. The government have more than enough tax money to help people. It should be about how can we reduce taxes for the working class and not about how can we tax the rich more. At the end of the day, they do plenty for the people. Where do you think jobs come from? Don't blame the tax and the rich in general, blame the elites and the corrupt governments that print money endless money and in turn decrease the value of your money.

Nice to see the trope of “frivolous” expenditure alive and kicking in the minds of people who don’t realise how fortunate they are.

Everyone should watch Gary’s economics, he breaks down how a wealth tax would work in an articulate and understandable way

The brilliance of someone with 2 homes talking about homeless people, using the good old "we should look after out own" argument and saying the government don't do it because they look after number 1. More the they look after the 1% i.e. her.

I would be ASTOUNDED if even a single property here was owned by a UK resident tax payer who would have to pay any wealth tax. Expensive properties are owned by non residents or offshore non resident companies who as non tax payers would not be ensnared by any UK wealth tax.

Close the tax loopholes so that the rich actually pay tax in the first place.

less tax on fruit on vegetables what planet is she on, fruit and veg are zero rated for vat. imo if you earn over £10million per year then you should be on 60/70% tax rate.

The people who are not wealthy are not saying "take everything away from them" it's always a fairly measured response. That's very admirable, it would be easy to say "take it all". People are inherently fair I believe, it seems to degrade as wealth increases unfortunately.

“It’s proportionate to what?” The cost of f***ing LIVING, mate.

The entire system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. What’s sad is Corbyn’s policies had in place a much fairer system which we could have had for the last five to seven years including infrastructure, tax and a re-nationalisation of public services. The Labour Membership put forward everything people are have been begging for . People who voted Tory or didn’t bother voting didn’t just screw themselves but the rest of us too. It’s those people who shouldn’t be allowed to complain now. In the next election we have two parties that have the same political ideology, they don’t want a fairer system.

New TV frivolous? How about yachts private jets supercars etc

I think we as a country are taxed enough. The way our governments have wasted tax revenues is where the problem lies. Inefficiencies in public sector organisations should be shamed.

If we tax them they ain’t going anywhere to save a bit of money I can assure you that. These people deliberately choose to live in one of the most prestigious and expensive areas on the planet. They can go be wealthy out in the sticks but the point is to be wealthy and be seen to be wealthy. They would get a lot more for their money elsewhere but they choose to live where they do for a reason. They could choose to live in a normal house but they don’t. They choose to live in multimillion pound mansions in Holland Park, Chelsea, Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Hampstead Heath. Where are they going to go which isn’t a step down isn’t going to risk them becoming nobodies. These people rub shoulders with aristocrats in Mayfair casinos. They ain’t getting that anywhere else. If the tax on the rich meant that you had to have a certain amount of money to be in that club these people would actively enjoy paying it. Give them a special platinum tax club card and they will be showing it off and looking down on people who don’t have one.

I think people who receive employment bonuses of over £1 million should pay a windfall tax.

The older gentleman was correct. If you earn £22,500 per year you’ll only have to pay about £2000 a year in tax I think? After the personal allowance. Not to say it wouldn’t be tough to live off that these days, but it’s not a huge amount of money in terms of tax.

In Denmark you start paying a pretty hefty income tax from the very bottom, 36% after the free tax bracket (around 10k EUR). I believe this makes people more engaged with public services and assets. Also, that is a large part of the income the State relies on, no significant hidden social security fees or taxes like in Spain.

My belief is that wealthy people are more likely to leave the country because its going to shit owing to the gross and growing levels of inequality and injustice. Which is linked to the dreadfully unfair taxation structure and underinvestment in public services. Ironically, if wealth was taxed in a fairer way, and the richest paid a little more, they could help make the country not just a better place for the poorest, but also for themselves. Do the people of Kensington not realise that holding onto their wealth contributes directly to the increased likelihood of having to step over a homeless person on the way into Wholefoods?

The top 10% of earners pay 60% of the tax. The issue is now that anyone on over £125k is paying 60% tax. That’s why 12,000 millionaires have left the UK since 2017. Taxing the top 10 percentage in to oblivion is going to mean massive tax rises for the 90%. The average tax wedge has already risen from 30.9% in 2020 to 34.6% in 2021.

Regardless of what Labour say, or any politicians say, extreme wealth inequality creates fertile ground for social tensions, unrest, and political instability, making societies more vulnerable to other pressures and potentially paving the way for collapse. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow in the UK, and the longer it goes on growing the bigger the consequences. Doing nothing about it is extremely dangerous: the fall of Rome and the Mayan civilization, the French and Russian revolutions, all had their roots fundamentally in a growing gap between the wealthy elite and the impoverished majority.

Is that one old guy serious, “I don’t think people on low low income have a lot to complain about”?????? How out of touch can one person be🙄🙄

I think the lady at the end talking about a 'frivolous tax' has a good point. We should overhaul the vat system so as to remove vat on the truly essential items, a lower amount on useful items, a slightly higher amount on uncesserary but normal items, Anda large amount on the truly frivolous buys. On it's own I don't think this change would solve things overnight, but several small(ish) changes in a relatively small timescale could make a very noticeable difference

🇨🇦 raised taxes on the rich and reduced taxes on the middle class & below.

We’re not so far from a Feudal Society: the Rich and or titled still see an us and them situation. They consider that they need and deserve the money, we are the worker bees that should know our places as being essential for them to thrive.

6:23 The fact this guy thought the personal earnings threshold was £14/£15k speaks for itself. The allowance is £12,570 currently. Not a massive difference between that and what he thought. But an extra £1500 on your allowance would make all the difference for some people.

Yes, Yes, Yes - Tax Wealth not Work.

A tax in wealth IS NOT a tax on savings - it's that inheritance and dividend and profit and assets should be taxed Land should be taxed, for example

'Wealth, more often than not, comes from savings.' Sorry, quite wrong. It comes from dividends and inheritance.

Good interviews here where the interviewer actually listens to people. Interesting stuff.

Did that older chap just say "people on low income don't have a great deal to complain about"? 😮

The old guy is problem we have in the UK

Tax rates aren't the problem in this country, it is how the government spends it. You give up 40% at above 50k and 45% at above 125k. It is insane to argue anyone should be giving up more than a half of what they earn in taxes. There is more room for reliefs to be brought for lower income individuals.

The lady talking about food and TV tax made some good points. The basic stuff needed for living should be tax free, ie healthy food and water. "luxuries" could be a higher tax bracket, and then stupid stuff like mega yaghts and 2nd houses + should be even higher.

I like the Ricky Gervais comment, to paraphrase: “I’m happy to pay tax to a country that allowed me to generate my wealth “

Tax assets not income, capital gains should be taxed as income. The mega wealthy may move somewhere else, but they will not move their assets as that is what makes them rich.