Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

The commission placed a great deal of emphasis on the issue of inequality. This is one of the reasons there is such a focus on capital taxes, given that wealthier people have a disproportionate share of the wealth. Property taxes affect a broad range of people. People at the bottom of income distribution would usually not be affected much, but a lot of the middle class would be. There are complex issues. It depends on the overall package. For other reasons, some taxes could be changed in a way that might be harmful to equality. However, other measures could be taken on the other side. For example, some of the changes on the welfare side are designed to do that.

The Government should produce more detailed empirical analyses of proposals using the data it has. The analyses should not examine just how much money can be made, but also what their economic and equality impacts will be.