Wealth Tax Campaigner Guru Mistakes Wealth for Income – Guido Fawkes

Wealth Tax Campaigner Guru Mistakes Wealth for Income

Wealth tax campaigner and former “OK but not exceptional” Citibank trader Gary Stevenson appeared on BBC Question Time last night to plead once again for redistribution via an annualised wealth tax on “the rich.” Gary had it pointed out to him that numerous European countries have implemented wealth taxes before scrapping them. These include Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. Sweden’s wealth tax in the year before its 2007 abolition accounted for 0.16% of GDP and had caused massive capital flight. Guido Verify has examined Gary’s claims in response to these points…

Gary was asked for examples of where it worked and said:

“We did it here, we did it here, we did it here in the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, and people like my dad, people like my granddad – who was a bus conductor –  were able to buy houses, have financial security, have pensions, have retirements, go on holidays. We did it here, we did it here, and we’re losing that now because we’re not taxing the rich.”

A Guido Verify analysis of historical tax schedules in the UK could not identify a wealth tax – defined by its supporters as a “broad-based tax on the ownership of net wealth, most or all types of asset, not only a specific type such as property” – having ever been imposed in this period or indeed any other period. Former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey remarked: “We had committed ourselves to a wealth tax; but in five years I found it impossible to draft one which would yield enough revenue to be worth the administrative cost and political hassle.” This period did see exceedingly high taxes on investment income (not a wealth tax), and regular income (not a wealth tax). The 1976 sterling crisis subsequently saw the UK receive a $3.9 billion loan from the IMF…

Guido Verify has also conducted analysis of Gary’s holidaymaking claims. In 1970 Brits took 5.7 million trips abroad – that’s approximately 0.1 per capita. By 2018 this had in fact risen to 47 million – 0.7 per capita. Interestingly in 2023 after the Covid crisis had according to Gary resulted in the theft of all the money from the middle and working class, that figure rose to 55.53 million. Guido Verify is on hand should Gary ever seek to substantiate his claims with evidence or understand what a wealth tax is…