Tax the Wealth of Older Britons to Help the Young, Report Argues

Britain should impose higher wealth taxes on the older generation to ease the growing burden on young people, according to the Resolution Foundation.

In a speech Monday, Executive Chair David Willetts will warn that welfare spending is set to rise by the equivalent today of 60 billion pounds ($83 billion) by 2040 as aging “baby boomers” drive up the cost of health care.

“The time has come when we Boomers are going to have reach into our own pockets,” he will say. “The alternative could be an extra 15 pence on the basic rate of tax, paid largely by our kids. Is that kind of tax really the legacy we –-a generation who own half the nation’s wealth –-want to bequeath our children and grandchildren?”

Willetts, a former minister in the ruling Conservative Party, will make the case for reform of council tax — a property-based levy that helps fund local services — and of inheritance tax.