The Time To Abolish Capital Gains Tax Is Now!

During the 2019 general election that was called to break the Brexit deadlock, Boris Johnson was asked if he was going to raise taxes to pay for Britain's public services and he said the following:

I guarantee that we will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or national insurance

Granted that this assurance was made by the British prime minister just before the global pandemic wreaked havoc on our physical and mental health. Our livelihoods, jobs and economy, something about the recent announcement of the arbitrary increase in taxes speaks to the profound moral bankruptcy of the current conservative government.

And I will explain why.

New Tax Rates In The Age Of Austerity, Minimum Wage And Zero Hour Contracts

It is widely accepted across the political spectrum that there's a massive shortfall in money to pay for public services such as the National Health Service, Transportation and schools. If anything, the events of the last eighteen months have demonstrated why an increase in taxation is an absolute moral imperative.

What isn't at all acceptable are the people at whom the increase in taxes are directed, which I have taken great care in listing below:

· Nurses, who were recently given a 1% pay rise in recognition of their service.

· Retail employees ( shop assistants) on zero hour contracts

· Uber and delivery drivers who are self employed

· Those earning between 20,000–40,000 pounds per annum

· Employees on the minimum wage, which in the United Kingdom is £7 per hour.

· Young graduates

· Teachers and teaching assistants.

The tax hike of 1.25%, which is being described as the highest increase since the end of the second world war is poised to eat deep into the earnings of those who are already struggling as it is to get by in twenty-first century Britain.

And this is all in stark contrast to the very wealthiest among us, who have paid next to nothing in the past and will not be affected by the latest tax increase.

An extraordinary case in point is Amazon UK

Jeff Bezos' establishment has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the year long lockdown in the UK. In times past, the Royal mail was responsible for dispatching our mails and goods to our homes, but under the corrupt conservative regime, the job has since been outsourced to Amazon.

Owing to the pandemic, the rates of online sales and deliveries have spiked beyond the ordinary and Amazon's numbers in the last year surged to £20 billion.

Given these crazy numbers, how much did Mr. Bezos' company pay in taxes in the United Kingdom?

£493 million!

This amounts to 2.4% in taxes.

As powerfully expressed in the tweet below, this amounts to paying 48 pounds on one's wages of £2,000, something that is inconceivable for all those working on the front line in Britain today.

Paying so little in taxes is why Jeff Bezos was able to fund the trip to Mars, a few months ago. And yet, we are all complicit in the world's wealthiest man's fortunes rising higher than ever.

Screen Shot from Twitter on my laptop.So where does this leave the great British public which voted conservative at the last general elections in December 2019?

As I stated in my previous articles which I have embedded at the bottom of this page, the stupidity of the English working class knows no bounds; it is the only reason why the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, despite the numerous lies and deceit of the leading lights of the Conservative party.

It is precisely why Jeremy Corbyn, despite his honesty and fundamental decency lost the 2019 election, when it was all too clear that the Labour party, under his leadership, were the only political movement committed to delivering social justice for the British people.

And it is with the current mess blighting our polity, that I put forward this incredibly radical proposal ahead of the next election.

The Abolition of Capital Gains Tax.

According to Wikipedia, Capital Gains Tax is defined as:

A tax on the profit realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property.

Not all countries impose a capital gains tax and most have different rates of taxation for individuals and corporations. Countries that do not impose a capital gains tax include Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man,Jamaica,New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and others. In some countries, such as New Zealand and Singapore, professional traders and those who trade frequently are taxed on such profits as a business income.

Why abolish the Capital Gains Tax?

For this (Capital Gains Tax) has been the means by which the large corporations - Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Uber - the hedge funds, venture capitalists and the oligarchs in our midst have avoided their moral obligation and responsibility to the rest of society.

In my previous article titled: " Tax Havens: Destroying Laissez Faire Capitalism's Final Refuge" I wrote in a bit of detail about how the globe's biggest companies have perfected the art of paying little tax and also how colonies in the Caribbean were transformed with the sole purpose of tax avoidance.

In voting the Conservatives in the United Kingdom and the Republicans in the United States into power, what you are doing is letting the Oligarchs,the venture capitalists, the lobbyists write legislation on your behalf. You are saying that it is perfectly acceptable for the 1% in our midst to get away with paying so little in taxes. You are saying that is completely acceptable for the wealthiest to keep plundering the earth thereby accelerating the pace of climate destruction. And that is completely acceptable leaving the rest of us with absolutely nothing to survive on.

The time to abolish capital gains tax is now!