This blog by Adrian Sinfield was first published by the Social Policy Association’s Tax Policy Group.
The conference on Wealth Inequality, Tax and Social Policy hosted by the Social Policy Association’s Tax and Social Policy Group, was held in London on 16 January 2025. The main takeaways highlighted by the author are:
- Wealth inequality continues as individuals with wealth maintain barriers to change through family offices and other mechanisms, with the “wealth defence industry” receiving limited scrutiny from researchers or policymakers.
- Politicians’ understanding of public attitudes toward wealth tax reforms often relies on historical precedents (such as the poll tax response) rather than current social attitudes.
- The UK budget process presents challenges for tax reform through its structure, limited preparation time (typically eight weeks), minimal involvement from non-Treasury departments, and the requirement for ministers to commission reform options.
- Tax administration shows different levels of oversight – tax reliefs that primarily benefit wealthy individuals receive less evaluation (25 of 343 tax expenditures evaluated since 2015, with under £1 million annual spending on evaluations), compared to social security benefits for those with fewer resources.
- International aspects of wealth inequality require further analysis, including how international tax rules affect national fiscal policies, the potential of Global Anti-Base Erosion Rules (GloBE), and the challenges of implementing international taxation of high-wealth individuals.