Torsten Bell's Treasury influence raises likelihood of wealth tax reforms in autumn Budget

"The appointment of Dan Tomlinson, a former Treasury official who spent seven years at the Resolution Foundation, has reinforced the perception that wealth taxes will be "hard-wired" into Reeves' fiscal plans. Tomlinson has previously argued that it would be "indefensible" not to consider higher wealth taxes, co-authoring a 2021 report with Bell which described Britain's tax system as structurally biased in favour of wealth over earnings."

""The 2020s will pose big questions for our taxation system," the report said, highlighting carbon taxes, the relative taxation of gas versus electricity, and the under-taxation of capital compared with labour. A more recent Resolution Foundation paper, Under Pressure, co-authored by Tomlinson, James Smith and Krishan Shah, concluded: " Higher taxation on wealth and non-employment income are very likely to be part of the answer for governments seeking to cope with fiscal pressures in the 2020s.""

"The Treasury's top team has been reshaped with the arrival of Torsten Bell and senior colleagues from the influential Resolution Foundation think tank, in a move that has heightened expectations of a radical shift in the UK's tax system. Bell himself has described Britain's tax code as a "dog's dinner" and has advocated what he calls "radical incrementalism" - gradual but fundamental reform to shift the burden of taxation away from wages and towards assets."

Torsten Bell and senior colleagues from the Resolution Foundation have joined the Treasury's top team and are central to autumn Budget preparations. Their long-standing advocacy favors taxing wealth more heavily than income, raising the prospect of higher levies on property, inheritance and investment income. Dan Tomlinson’s appointment reinforces expectations that wealth taxes will be embedded in fiscal strategy. Reports co-authored by Bell and Tomlinson describe the UK tax system as biased toward wealth versus earnings and identify higher taxation on wealth and non-employment income as likely policy responses to 2020s fiscal pressures.

Read at Business Matters