Archbishop of Canterbury May be the Next Robin Hood

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, of the United Kingdom has co-written a report for the Institute for Public Policy Research which calls for the wealthiest of Britain’s citizens to pay much more in taxes. The tax hikes would include increasing capital gains taxes, higher taxes on dividends, replacing the inheritance tax with a gift tax, and targeting multi-national corporations such as Amazon and Starbucks with a “backstop tax.”

Welby appears to believe that taxing the rich will benefit the poor, in essence balancing out the wealth inequality of the nation. The Archbishop said, “For decades the UK economy has not worked as it should, with millions of people and many parts of the country receiving less than their fair share.”

But the “widening gulf between rich and poor,” as Welby calls it, may not be as dire as he is claiming. Inequality has actually fallen in the last 50 years, with the top tax bracket now paying 27% of all income taxes, compared to only 11% in the 1970’s.

See Matt Dathan, Archbishop of Canterbury Calls for New Taxes on the Wealthiest to Help the Poorest, The Sun, September 5, 2018.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.) for bringing this article to my attention.