Article by Phil
You won’t be surprised to hear that paying no taxes is the most popular answer to the questions “which taxes would you most like to increase” – with 38% saying they would rather have no tax rises.
The question was posed by research commissioned by AJ Bell in the light of the government’s recent increases to National Insurance Contributions and Dividend Tax rates.
So, what were the favourites for an increase?
- Capital Gains Tax – 32% in favour. Probably not surprising because this tax only catches those making a profit on an asset sale and doesn’t affect most people.
- Dividend Tax – 23% in favour. Again, not surprising as this is often seen to be a tax on already “wealthy” business owners.
- Income Tax – 20%. This is probably the fairest tax catching the widest number of people.
- Inheritance Tax – 17%. It seems that many people still do not like the idea of Inheritance Tax.
- National Insurance – 15%. Seemingly the least acceptable tax rise was seen to be National Insurance, which was the one the government chose to increase. The reason they gave was because this was the only way to raise the £12 billion necessary to implement the Social Care reforms promised.
Interestingly, only 8% thought that changing the triple lock was fair.
So, it seems that the government has picked the two least popular options. Perhaps they know something that the respondents to the survey don’t?
Remember you can do something about some taxes, like inheritance tax planning for example.
