Minority Sport
How politicians and the media overestimate public support for tax cuts and tax reliefs
Our new polling with Opinium shows that only one in six Britons want tax cuts and oppose key tax reforms.
Browse the report | Read and share our twitter/X thread | Read our coverage in the Independent and the Observer
Is there really a majority in favour of cutting taxes? Our polling suggests otherwise. 64% of Britons (rising to 73% of Conservative voters) support maintaining or increasing taxes. Only 16% support cutting taxes if it means cutting public services.
Two in three people (65%) support reforming capital gains tax so that income from wealth is taxed either at the same rate or at a higher rate than income from work, with only 15% opposed.
A majority support the idea of a minimum effective income tax rate of 35% for people earning over £100k, with only 14% actively opposed. Support is slightly lower among Conservatives (45%), but still much higher than opposition (20%).
There is a strong level of net support for proposals to reform reliefs on inheritance tax (Business Relief and Agricultural Property Relief) to reduce their £1.5bn annual cost to the government.
There are high levels of net support for investing in HMRC compliance in order to generate higher levels of tax revenue (every £1 invested generates £15 of additional revenue); supporters outnumber opponents by a factor of three to one.
This report is part of our work on Deep Opportunity, which argues that we need to tackle the underlying barriers to opportunity - wealth inequality, our unfair tax system and aspects of our democracy - as well as improving education for everyone.
Read the full report, complete with detailed polling figures, data visualisations, demographic breakdowns and commentary on the findings, on our website.
Our founder and chair Julian Richer spoke to the Guardian about tax, alongside TUC general secretary Paul Nowak, in an interview published today.