Yes, through loopholes.
An example, you may have heard of “Employee Owned Businesses”, a system introduced by the Tories, modelled after John Lewis/Waitrose, which is an employee owned company. Essentially, under the scheme a privately owned cash-rich business can buy itself from its owners. This is done with the set up of an Employee Owned Trust (EOT), a separate business that temporarily owns the main business over however many years it takes to pay off the owners for the full price. After that, the business is fully employee owned and operated. However, the big incentive is that it’s tax free for the original owners.
Say the business was worth £50 million. In theory you could restructure the business into an employee owned business, or sell it to anyone else, but you’d have to pay £10 million in capital gains tax, and you’d only take home £40 million. By going the EOT route you get the full £50 million.
Most high value transactions that are done use some tax incentive scheme or another to reduce the capital gains tax below the starting level of 20%. Such loopholes are not available for income tax. However, truly wealthy people don’t make most of their money through salaries, their main income is capital gains.
Personally I don’t think income should be taxed, at least not below some very high threshold (to prevent exploitation). You’re already giving up your time, which is the ultimate value, and you’re doing so in service of a business which itself is in service of society. You’ve done your part, you’re not getting the excess profit. The things that should be taxed are when people make money from assets, when they make money not by doing things but by exploiting what they own.
