Should the wealthy pay more taxes?

Wealthy people already pay their fair share

Question: Should the wealthy pay more taxes?
Position‹2 of 2: No, the wealthy should not have to pay more tax
Argument‹3 of 3: Wealthy people already pay their fair share

The tax burden on the wealthy is already proportionally higher than any other income group, and their taxation helps pay into a substantial portion of public service costs. It would be unfair to increase their share further.

The argument

The question of whether the wealthy should pay more is usually posed as though they were not already paying most of it. In most societies they are. Income tax is structured progressively, so higher earners pay at higher rates as well as on larger sums, and the contribution rises faster than the income does. Taxes on spending add to this indirectly: levies such as Value Added Tax fall on consumption, and those with more to spend pay more of them, so the burden is not confined to what appears on a payslip. The UK figure gives the scale. The wealthiest one per cent account for a third of all income tax — one per cent of taxpayers carrying a third of the receipts. Whatever standard of fairness is applied, a distribution of that shape is not one in which the top is contributing too little. The system already asks a great deal more of them than of anyone else, and it does so by design. Against that background, proponents of this position regard further increases as both divisive and unfair. Unfair, because a group already providing a disproportionate share is being told that share is insufficient, with no account given of what would be sufficient; the demand has no stated endpoint. Divisive, because presenting the wealthy as not paying their way sets one part of the population against another on a premise the figures do not support, and the resentment that generates is harder to undo than any revenue it raises. The conclusion is that the existing arrangement already embodies the principle its critics appeal to. Those with the most do pay the most, substantially so, and because wealthy people already pay their fair share, they should not have to pay more tax.

Premises

[P1]In most societies the wealthiest already pay the most tax, both directly through higher income tax rates and indirectly through spending taxes like VAT. [P2] In the UK the wealthiest 1% account for a third of all income tax. [P3] Increasing their burden further would be both divisive and unfair. [C] Therefore, because wealthy people already pay their fair share, the wealthy should not have to pay more tax.

Counter-arguments

In modern civilised societies, there is a shared belief that humans are entitled to a certain standard of living and access to vital public services irrespective of their income or background. This fundamental principle is at the heart of most liberal democratic societies and relates to the belief that the needs of the individual should be super ceded by the needs of the community. This philosophy advocates that those with the greatest means should pay the highest amount of cost and this should be reflected in a modern tax system.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] We should increase tax rates in order to ensure all people have an acceptable standard of living.