Funding the Future The right way to tax wealth in 2026
Dec 21, 2025
Explore the heated debate around wealth taxation and why a streamlined approach may be more effective. Richard Murphy argues for taxing income and gains over complex wealth taxes, emphasizing potential revenue differences. He highlights how proper taxation can expose hidden assets and strengthen democracy by reducing wealth concentration's market distortions. With practical reform proposals laid out, he calls for concrete actions to achieve a fairer, faster taxation system by 2026.
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Reveal Wealth By Taxing Its Returns
- Much wealth is hidden and under-taxed, so targeting income, gains and transfers reveals it more quickly than a standalone wealth tax.
- Richard Murphy argues existing data on income and gains makes these taxes easier and faster to collect than a complex wealth tax.
Reforms Could Raise Far More Revenue
- Murphy estimates targeted reforms could yield about £90bn a year, far exceeding typical wealth-tax projections of ~£20bn.
- He uses this to argue income/gains measures are a more effective lever to tax wealth quickly.
Taxation As Restraint On Power
- Wealth causes political and market distortions because it compounds faster than the economy and buys influence.
- Murphy frames wealth taxation as restraint to preserve democracy, not only as a revenue tool.