Tax: Church Action for Tax Justice Reports

Debate between Lord Bishop of St Albans and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

Thursday 21st January 2021 Grand Committee

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, I thank all those speaking in this evening’s debate. I am no expert on tax, but it does not take an expert to see that there are some deeply entrenched tax inequalities. This 2019 report by Church Action for Tax Justice, and its 2021 report, Fair Tax Now, are more relevant than ever, not least with the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic being felt in all parts of society, and with Her Majesty’s Government’s commitment to “levelling up”.

The proposals laid out by Church Action for Tax Justice seek not to harm wealth generation, but to level the playing field and facilitate a fairer tax system that ensures that those with the deepest pockets do their duty to the societies that provided the context in which they were able to amass their wealth. This is a vast topic, so I will make a couple of preliminary comments and then suggest four of the most important areas that must be addressed.

Democracies rely on the population accepting that taxes are broadly equitable, yet there is now a consensus that, for example, many international online companies are not paying their fair share of taxes in this country. At the same time, there is a delicate balance between encouraging the generation of wealth and ensuring that the burden of social costs is shared as equitably as possible.

Of the four most important areas to be addressed, the first is tax havens. For the United Kingdom, tax avoidance remains a major problem, with the annual tax gap estimated at £31 billion per annum. However, even more damaging is the infrastructure enabled by the UK that allows tax avoidance on a global scale. The presence of tax havens, whether they be British Overseas Territories or Crown dependencies, combined with their close connection to the financial might of the City of London, facilitates an international network that syphons money out of nations and into these jurisdictions, with their low tax, weak legislation and easily exploitable loopholes. Noble Lords may recall that the British Virgin Islands was the most popular tax haven mentioned in the Panama papers.

While I am pleased that the British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies have all committed to publish public registers of beneficial ownership by 2023, these territories will remain lucrative places to those seeking to avoid paying tax. According to the 2019 corporate tax haven index, four of the top 10 havens globally were UK associated territories: the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Jersey. The 2023 changes may go some way towards reducing their use, but the reality is that the City of London and the UK’s associated territories will continue to be at the centre of a network for international tax avoidance. Furthermore, should the Government choose to move ahead with free ports, and essentially create onshore tax havens within the UK, a corporate tax rate race to the bottom may be unleashed.

Secondly, I have some comments about income tax and national insurance. Domestically, we face structural problems in our tax system. It simply cannot be right that, when all tax is taken into account, the bottom 10% of people pay 42% of their income while the top 10% pay just 34.3%. Without doubt, part of the problem is that we have a progressive tax in income tax, along with a regressive tax in national insurance. Rolling up both of those into a single standardised progressive income tax would reduce bureaucracy and contribute towards rebalancing the percentage of income paid in tax. That would only partially solve the issue; it is the lower rates of capital gains tax, most beneficial to those with assets, that reduce the overall tax rate of the wealthiest. Whether by the incorporation of capital gains tax into a single progressive tax or by making capital gains more progressive and in line with general income tax, the current system requires reform to equalise the tax across wealth brackets.

Thirdly, there is council tax, which also fails accurately to account for the financial conditions of those who pay it. I think that a tax based on property valuations from 1991 is parochial and antiquated. The highest tax band, for properties worth £320,000 or more in 1991, fails to take into account changes to regional house prices since then and creates no differentiation between any properties worth more than £320,000: a property now worth £3 million pays equal council tax to a property worth £350,000. Furthermore, it is again designed as a regressive tax that results in the poorest paying a higher proportion of their income on council tax than those who are wealthier. Those on the highest incomes pay just 1% of their income on council tax; the lowest decile, conversely, pays 9%. According to Citizens Advice, it is the most common debt problem faced by families in the UK. At a minimum, it needs updating to reflect modern house prices, alongside the addition of a new higher bracket. Ideally, though, it should go further to better account for income disparities and to equalise contributions.

Lastly, I will say a word about corporation tax and VAT. Over the past 30 years the taxes that impact the poorest have steadily increased, such as VAT or council tax, while those that impact the wealthiest have gone down—for example, corporation tax and capital gains tax. Between 1975 and 2020 the relationship between VAT and corporation tax has virtually inversely correlated, with VAT going up and corporation tax going down. Although the EU set a base standard rate of 15% VAT, the UK has had 20% VAT since 2011, while continually reducing corporation tax during the same period. Now that we are no longer subject to the EU’s VAT requirements, perhaps the Government might consider slightly rebalancing corporation tax and VAT to deliver a fairer settlement to citizens and business alike.

I hope I have laid out quite clearly that, far from being some radically redistributionist document, the proposals from Church Action for Tax Justice seek only to induce fairness in the tax system and prevent the heaviest burden falling on the poorest. Much is said about the future now that we have left the EU. Some of us fear that it may give licence to people to change in ways that further divide our country in terms of people’s wealth. My hope is that we will take a lead in our world to think how we can use this opportunity creatively, so that everyone in our society has fair responsibilities and fair rewards for all that they do.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

I call the next speaker, the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie of Luton. Lord McKenzie? No? We will move on to the next speaker, and if we can reconnect with the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, we will bring him back in after the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth. I call the noble Lord, Lord Holmes of Richmond.