Posted on 04/26/2009 5:19:47 PM PDT by Roberts
The opinion polls have uttered. The country loves the new 50 per cent top rate of income tax. Soak the rich. Smash the bankers. So Government spin doctors are in second heaven. The Conservatives' silence redefines a tomb. And I suppose there'd be quite a turnout for the public flogging of Sir Fred the Shred.
But before you book your tickets, hold hard. And before you lynch me as a rich b*****d flying a kite for my own cause, let me beg you to believe that I am not.
I believe that this new top rate of tax could be the final nail in the coffin of Britain plc.
I am 61 years old. I have lived and worked in Britain all my life. Not even in the dark days of penal Labour taxation in the Seventies did I have any intention of leaving the country of my birth.
Despite a rumour put around some years back, I have never contemplated leaving Britain for tax reasons. But in the 40-plus years I have been lucky enough to work here, I've seen a bit. So I must draw your attention to what is really proposed in this Budget.
Here's the truth. The proposed top rate of income tax is not 50 per cent. It is 50 per cent plus 1.5 per cent national insurance paid by employees plus 13.3 per cent paid by employers. That's not 50 per cent. Two years from now, Britain will have the highest tax rate on earned income of any developed country.
I write this article because I fear the inevitable exodus of the talent that can dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. It is inevitable, given that other countries are bidding for entrepreneurs. The Government must modify its proposals.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: The last thing this country needs is a pirate raid on the wealth creators
Great article by British composer from the DailyMail UK
A person who gets it.
The UK and the USA are done. The will get exactly what they earned.
Thats just the income tax, now add the sales tax, VAT tax and others...
Kudos to Andrew Lloyd Webber! The more ‘Reason’ the better. . .
“Who is John Galt?”
GOING GALT: Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Starve the beast!
Plus the British VAT (17.5%). So that is what, 82.3%?
Bookmark
A marginal rate allowing you to keep .175 pounds for every pound earned?
No thanks. I’ll stay home, and not work 1 more hour.
Well, no wonder Roger Waters (far-left co-founder of Pink Floyd) HATES Webber! I’d always assumed it was just because Waters didn’t like Webber’s music, but now that I learn Webber is a conservative, it all becomes clear.
Compassionate, tolerant leftists hate conservatives above all else.
TV tax
road tax (plus the MOT inspection fee)
It has been a while since I lived there, but the song “Tax Man” is only a slight exaggeration What is the VAT rate there these days? In Germany it was 19% as of last summer.
I see my question was answered in post 11 - 17.5%. Ouch.
This applies only to 1% of taxpayers, and even in their case not to their first £150,000 of earnings. Rates and tax bands for the rest of us are unchanged. This means, of course, that the extra government revenue resulting from this change will be vanishingly small. So why do it? Clearly for its symbolic value - though symbolic of what is difficult to discern: since New Labour, from the moment it acceded to power in 1997, has hitherto assiduously courted the rich with an assortment of tax breaks, which is why there are so many foreign plutocrats who have chosen to live as tax exiles in London.
(btw the 13% employers' contribution to NI mentioned doesn't come off the employee's salary, so it's strictly speaking an employment tax not an income tax - so stevyp's calculation at post 13 not quite right)
btt
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