Thread by @ChrisGiles_

Quiz yourself whether a Covid wealth tax is a good idea (if you want to do the quiz, don't read the column till later when we'd appreciate the clicks...

,ft.com/content/e3d0a6… via @financialtimes

Simple questions: who should pay more in a wealth tax:

a) a rich young banker driving her new Lamborghini to and from her riverside penthouse; or
b) an NHS consultant convalescing after weeks on a ventilator having contracted Covid-19 trying to save lives?

How about:

a) the business owner whose motto is “you only live once” and plans for the government to look after him in retirement; or
b) the business owner who’s horrified by the idea of reliance on the state for his pension or social care?

Or

a) the playboy Russian son of an oligarch with a rented home in Mayfair; or
b) a headteacher living in one of London’s comfortable suburbs?

If your answers were mostly a) you should oppose the "Wealth Tax Commission" proposals.

If they were mostly b) you should be fully in support of them

My bet is most people are mostly a) for good practical reasons.

But that's not how the proposed one-off tax works and so the politics of it would never work (regardless of economic efficiency arguments

And another thing: "A wealth tax is unnecessary. Sensible income, expenditure, property and inheritance taxation can raise the revenues required to repair any holes in the public finances and redistribute income and wealth as society demands."

ft.com/content/e3d0a6…