What is Tax For?

An answer in six tweets by Richard Murphy ‏@RichardJMurphy

What does tax do? It pays for what we need, corrects market failures, makes gov’t accountable, delivers justice & creates prosperity.

Tax reorganises the economy. When the chips are down, like now, it’s tax that lets government intervene to get the economy going again.

Tax raises accountability. Politicians are accountable for tax. Companies must be accountable for the tax they pay. Tax makes us count.

Tax redistributes income and wealth, making the UK a fairer place. All evidence says increased equality improves life quality, for everyone.

Tax can be used to reprice goods and services we don’t like. Like pollution & tobacco. And subsidise the things we need, like food & health.

What’s tax for? Raising money, of course. But it’s so much more than that. Tax is the most powerful tool we have to change our economy.