Movement, narrative and power: A strategy for achieving tax justice in the UK

For too long our politics and media has been dominated by a race-to-the-bottom ideology with tax depicted as “theft”.

Tax Justice UK exists to overturn this story.  

The facts are simple: we are not raising enough money to pay for the teachers, nurses and public services voters want, whilst the tax that is raised is falling disproportionately on the poorest. 

Tax Justice UK was born out of the wider international tax justice movement and we want to see everyone in the UK benefit from a fairer and more effective tax system.

The UK has high levels of poverty and inequality, and a majority of people feeling that the economy doesn’t work for them. Government spending is a key way of tackling these challenges. However, there are signs of strain including people sleeping rough  a dysfunctional benefit system with many families reliant on foodbanks and a social care system that is failing the elderly and disabled. 

A well functioning tax system should be a basic building block of our communities. But the current approach isn’t raising enough tax to fund vital services. We see no solution to the problems the UK faces that does not involve progressive tax reform. This means raising more tax in the first place and shifting the focus of tax from the poorest onto those better able to pay.

Today we’re publishing our three year strategy setting out how we plan to build public and political support for change. There is lots of policy analysis on what reform should look like by a range of academics, think tanks. What is sometimes missing is the political will and confidence to be bold about the need for change. The value we add is to take the ideas that are already out there and help build a movement to push for change. 

Tax Justice UK will do three things:

• Help build a movement  pushing for tax reform,
• ​Shape a narrative about what a fairer tax system looks like, and
• Work with those in power to build support for the wide-ranging reform that is needed.

During the period of this strategy we will focus on campaigning for greater taxes on wealth. Ideally the wealthy should be paying a higher share of their income in tax than the poor, but according to the Resolution Foundation this isn’t the case. There is a growing chorus of people on the left and right arguing that we need to tax wealth and capital better. Our report, The World we Want, set out how to do this. 

This is an ambitious agenda. Despite the fact that UK politics is in turmoil, discussions about government spending and tax will still be central to public debate. Tax Justice UK will consistently demand that we have a tax system that works for everyone. If you’re interested in working with us, please get in touch - mail [at] taxjustice.uk.

Read our full strategy here.