The Taxing Wealth Report 2024 notes that:

• The UK has suffered successive major financial crises, including the global financial crisis of 2008, the Covid crisis of 2020 and the subsequent ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
• These crises have been exacerbated by government austerity since 2010.
• As a consequence, many now feel that:
  • UK public services are seriously underfunded.
  • Many of those public services are at breaking point and might fail without new investment.
  • The economy is broken and no longer works to meet need.
• Simultaneously there is a need to address the climate and biodiversity crises that demand radical change in the way the economy is managed.
• In response to this, many politicians are claiming 'there is no money left' or that 'there is no capacity left to raise tax', both implying that in the opinion of those making these claims that the government can spend no more to address these issues.

The research within the Taxing Wealth Report 2024 shows that:

• The wealthiest people and highest earners in the UK are considerably undertaxed at present by the present tax system in operation in the UK.
• There is ample scope to increase the tax paid by those two groups, whose members largely overlap, without ever having to resort to a wealth tax, as some are proposing, but about whose practicality we have concerns.
• There is, as a result, significant scope for additional tax to be imposed in the UK if the demand for government spending and fiscal policy requires it in coming years.

As a result, it is suggested that:

• The funding for the Green New Deal that this country requires is readily available.
• The public investment in the UK's public services and the broader economy can be afforded.
• There is no need for any politician ever again to claim “there is no money left” when that is not the case because a wide range of choices on how to raise the required funding is available, as this report shows.

This website, which will expand in scope as the elements of the Taxing Wealth Report 2024 are published during the autumn of 2023, is split into a number of sections:

• An introduction to the report and the methodologies that underpin its findings.
• A discussion of tax reforms by type, associating these with the various taxes that the UK has that are currently biased in favour of those with wealth.
• Issues that need to be addressed in more depth in the future.

A summary of the proposals made and their suggested cumulative value is available here.

It is expected that publication of the Taxing Wealth Report 2024 will be completed during October 2023, permitting its use in debate on issues relating to the funding of the UK government that will inevitably arise prior to the general election in the UK scheduled for 2024. When complete, the whole report will be made available in a single document.

The Taxing Wealth Report 2024 has been written by Prof Richard Murphy on behalf of Finance for the Future LLP and Sheffield University Management School, with funding assistance provided by the Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation. All material is (c) Finance for the Future LLP, 2023, but can be shared subject to specific conditions.

If you wish to contact us about this project or website, please do so.

An expanded version of this introduction to the project is available here.