Why we are doing this
The case for change
Work is taxed more heavily than wealth. That is the whole argument. Almost everything else is detail.
The difference
If you make money by working, income tax and National Insurance come out before you ever see it. If you make money by owning — shares, property, land, a business somebody else runs for you — you pay at lower rates, you pay later, and there are more lawful ways to pay less.
None of that is fraud. It is the law working exactly as written. Which is why arguing about avoidance misses the point. The problem is not that people are breaking the rules. The problem is the rules.
What we are asking for
Equalise the rates. Income is income. Tax what you make from owning at the same rate as what you make from working, and stop pretending the distinction is a matter of economics rather than history.
Two per cent. An annual charge on net wealth above a threshold set high enough that it reaches the top and nobody else. It is the number we intend to keep repeating until people are bored of hearing it.
Charge the gains on the way out. Every proposal on this page gets the same answer: the rich will simply go. Some of them will. That is not a reason to hold the door and waive the bill. Settle up on departure — on the gains built up here, under the protection of the courts, the roads and the schools that are here. Leaving stops being a threat and becomes a transaction.
Let them leave.Don’t let them off.
Why we sell things
Campaigns need two things — money and visibility — and most ways of getting one cost you the other. A shirt does both at once. You pay for it once. We spend what is left on making the argument. The argument then walks around in public for the next two years.
We would rather be funded by ten thousand people buying a tee than by three people writing cheques, and not only for the obvious reason. Money from a lot of people is harder to characterise as somebody's pet project.
Who we are
TWNW is a not-for-profit. It has no shareholders and pays no dividend, and nobody draws a salary out of the shop. We are not affiliated with a political party and we are not asking you to join one.
What we are not
We are not calling for the abolition of private wealth, and we are not interested in a conversation about whether rich people are bad people. We are asking a narrow question with a numerical answer: should a pound earned by working be taxed more heavily than a pound earned by owning?
We think the answer is no. If you agree, the most useful thing you can do today is make that visible to somebody who has not thought about it.