Thread by @FisherAndrew79

Seeing lots of simplistic "tax rises suck demand out of the economy" nonsense on here - including from people who should know better 🧵 1/n

Do you know what does suck demand out of the economy?

People paying over half their income in rent
Debt repayments at high interest rates
Profiteering utilities and rail overcharging their customers Low wages
Benefit caps or freezes (i.e. deregulation and austerity) 2/n

Of course, *some* tax rises would suck demand out of the economy at this time – e.g. increasing the basic rate of income tax, increasing NI, or hiking Council Tax ...

(but I haven't noticed anyone suggesting these - except Sunak hiking NI for self-employed, which is dumb) 3/n

But increasing Capital Gains Tax (most of which is only paid by a handful of the richest) is unlikely to damage growth or reduce demand in the productive economy.

It might also help stop the acceleration of the rentier class and the processes in OP - 4/n

Likewise moderately increasing UK corporation tax (the lowest in G7) is very unlikely to have much effect on demand.

(especially if you do what Labour advocated in 2017 and 2019: reintroduce the lower small business rate to keep taxes lower for SMEs) - 5/n

There are also over-riding good reasons to hike green taxes to shift behaviour and encourage greater sustainability.

If carefully judged and targeted such measures can be demand- and revenue-neutral. 6/6 Ends 🧵