Tax not cuts
Tax not cuts
War on Want is working closely with trade unions, UK Uncut and the Tax Justice Network to highlight the devastating impact of swingeing cuts to public services. The government says we need to pay off the enormous debt from the financial crisis but why should the most vulnerable pay? Instead we are campaigning to ‘Close the Tax Gap’ to recover the billions in missing tax from the banks and big business.
Anti cuts campaign protest outside HMRC, London, UK (2010)
The government have spent hundreds of billions to bailout UK banks and seen tax revenue collapse because of the recession caused by the global financial crisis. However instead of making the banks pay for us bailing them out the government has shifted the blame onto the ordinary tax-paying citizen. As a result thousands of public servants including nurses, doctors, teachers, police and fire-fighters will lose their jobs to pay off the bank debts. This is manifestly unfair and will create only more poverty and undermines any economic recovery.
Currently there is a tax gap of up to £120 billion in the UK made up of £25 billion in uncollected tax, £25 billion in tax that is avoided (legal) and up to £70 billion in tax that is evaded (illegal). Our tax justice campaign with PCS is focused on stopping the cutbacks to our tax offices and tax inspectors, boosting resources to fight tax dodging and changing tax laws to ensure corporations pay the tax they owe.
The debate about cuts has enabled the government to create a diversion from what is an ideological attack on the state and public services. The government want to privatise large sectors of public services including healthcare and education and the cuts give them the smokescreen to do it. But it wasn’t the public servants who caused the financial crisis - it was the banks and they should pay.
War on Want is supporter of the Robin Hood Tax campaign which would use a very small tax on bank transactions to raise tens of billions to pay off our debts and fund vital public services both here and in developing countries.
There are alternatives to the government’s response to the bank bailout and the subsequent attack on public services. War on Want will be supporting debates and where possible campaigns to create a more democratic, equitable and just economic system.
