Posted on 04/22/2009 8:59:14 PM PDT by george76
A new 50 per cent top rate of income tax has been announced in the Budget by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor.
Personal allowances will also be fully withdrawn for those with incomes over £100,000 from next April.
Outlining the scale of the problem, Mr Darling announced that he expects that the economy will contract by about 1.6 per cent during the first quarter of this year, and that GDP growth will be about -3.5 per cent for the year.
The recession has forced the Chancellor to rip up his economic forecasts made in the Pre-Budget Report in November, in which the economy was expected to contract by just 1.25 per cent.
The Chancellor also admitted that Government borrowing will soar to £175bn in the current financial year, or 12 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. The recession has torn a hole through Britain's public finances as tax receipts collapse and spending on benefits such as unemployment rise.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They have lost their minds
Any government who has a finance minister named Allister Darling is in deep deep do do.
A 25% inrease in income taxes for the top bracket. Wow. Labour is sunk.
The 50% rate is a sop to the class warfare types. The devil will be in the details but basically “New” Labour has done what they always do - screw it up totally.
Darling is just Brown’s puppet anyway.
In the UK, are income tax rates simply the decision of the Chancellor of the Exchequer? Doesn’t Parliament have to pass a law containing the new rates?
This doesn't include some taxes (National Health Tax?) with that tax, the top rate is 61.5% and is accompanied by other reductions in deductions.
One of the fastest things on Earth is the flight of rich people and their money.
Yes, the Budget proposals must be voted into law.
This is a given barring something truly extraordinary taking place.
Richard Branson and JK Rowling are the only ones in that tax bracket aren’t they??
lol
Another Darling off in Neverland?
Not exactly, since the higher rate only applies to that part of your earnings in excess of £150K, not your earnings as a whole.
Your right, marginal tax rate, but, your point of 150,000 pounds is new to me...what I read was 300,000 and above. This is even worse!
The British system is the same as the Canadian system I presume.
I would assume that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has presented his budget to parliament.
Of course the budget measures have to be approved by parliament before they take effect.
(I am not 100% sure about this, however.
I vaguely recall that the Chancellor may put new taxes into immediate effect
but they are automatically cancelled if the budget is rejected.)
If the budget is not approved by parliament the government automatically falls
either parliament chooses a new prime minister or else elections are held.
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