My personal opinion is that taxes do have to rise - we can't leave this vast debt to grow and grow for future generations. I strongly oppose hitting pensions or savings as I believe people should be encouraged to save for their future as it derisks the state having to support them. I also think Income Tax is already very high.
The only way to raise significant revenue is to raise one of the big taxes so I think VAT would be my preference. I also think its fairer as the more you buy, the more you pay. I think taxes on businesses, many of whom have reaped huge benefits from the Government payments during the pandemic, are also fair. Lifestyle taxes, such as a Sugar Tax, seem sensible to me as a means of derisking healthcare costs to the state in the future. Significant hikes in fuel duty would help reduce the congestion on our roads.
I'm pretty sure that VAT is considered a right wing tax.
If your on minimum wage with no money left over each week and VAT went up to 25% your going to be stuffed.
If your on 50k, then not so much.
If your on 200k you won't notice it.
So while it may raise more money, it would come at a decline in consumer spending, and also hit the poorest in society the hardest.
I think UK gov was looking to tax the American tech giants, but geopolitics is making it clear it will end badly for us if we go down that road.
Much of the problem is with Multinationals gobbling up all the profits off shore. Simple example is if Starbucks "on paper" sends their beans via Switzerland, the swiss company charges the UK company a higher price, meaning the UK company makes zero profit year after year, all profits remaining in the most low tax regime.
So we need creative taxes targeted against the multinationals who do physical transactions in the UK, have more than 50 outlets for coffee? you get 5% tax extra, more than 500, 10% and so on, they can afford it, or they can increase their prices leaving room for the independents to compete.
Amazon needs taxed, how to do it I'm not sure, maybe a parcel tax, add 5% tax to every parcel shipped (small guys will lie on the value but big guys would end up in jail if they try it)
Digital taxes have the same issue, if someone clicks on a google add then 20% of that revenue should be going straight to the tax man, in reality they too play the game of offshoring stuff leading to small profits being made in the big core markets. (USA has a similar problem, vast profits from their companies sitting offshore untaxed)
The idea the world can get together and fix this is a non starter, look at the opportunistic behaviour of Ireland with Corporation tax in the EU,