top tax rate to increase to 45% over �150K

[kinell]

Oh dear, the politics of envy.

I know Christmas is approaching but the overriding general rule of life is that if a person receives a larger than average salary it did not fall out of a cracker and is paid as reward in respect of skill, hard work and commitment to a career over many years.

So, lefties, do you seriously think it is fair that a person earning �250K who currently pays �90,626.00 tax and �5903.00 NI should have to hand over another �5000 so labour can distribute it to the grabbers.

These high earners produce in most cases jobs for others and company profits which also contribute tax to the exchequer.

Talk about the erosion of incentives.

Have you noticed that 'prudent' brown now slips the word 'family' into every sentence, a nice way to alienate several million voters.

I agree that families and children are important for the future but we really need quality not quantity and so encouraging the lot who cant manage their commitments by shovelling dough at them is not the way forward.

[brionon]

Don't forget they propose to cut the money for single parents too. Who can afford it the most,d'you think ?

[Oneeyedvic]

We are not talking about a "a larger than average salary" - we are talking about 5 times the average wage in the country.

[The Sherman]

erosion of incentive?
You live in fantasy land if you think its not an incentive to try and earn 150k and have to pay the 'ridiculous' 45% tax
which i might add would have been 60% under old tories.

I think everyone in britain is suddenly shocked and in dispair that when they earn 150k they then have to pay 45% tax!
Brown you cant tax people like that and get away with it lets all strike lets all overturn the government so that our wealthiest citizens can get their 5% back!

Did anyone really care when this was announced this morning? It was the most irrelevant peice of news I have ever heard!

[anotheoldgit]

Surely if they earn such a huge wage, it is only fair that they put a little more into the pot, after all they can afford to.

Say for example one member of a large family earned much more than the rest of his family, don't you think it would only be right to help out his, mum, dad, brothers & sisters?

But I also agree that the wasters and layabouts who won't go to work, need to be sorted out immediately. Before anyone says "but there are no jobs", there is plenty of work that needs to be doing in exchange for the benefit money they are now receiving.

[Gromit]

I don't know how I'm going to cope.

[ludwig]

Don't worry about those high earners, they won't starve.
Most of the people earning that kind of dosh are self-employed and have accountants who spend their whole time devising ways for their clients to avoid paying income tax. There won't be much extra revenue raised by this.

[The Sherman]

to anotheoldgit

i am a big left winger but I witnessed someone who made me question my values.

She was 19 taking a gap year and decided to go on dole instead of getting a job, there was work available at a care home so i mentioned t to her and she said something like 'Im never doing that'

I was so angry at her laziness it really annoyed me!
but it also led me into thinking thats why so many foriegners come over here and get work straight away because i genuinely believe they have a better work ethic than British people

[Octavius]

Gromit, I should thinkn we would have to offset the tax by making another servant redundant.

[Gromit]

Octavius

All my servants are illegal immigrants and I don't actually pay them any money. Might have to half their rations though.

[Octavius]

Fair point, I have a couple of them too. I will have to up their rent as well.

[what..the?]

I agree with the poster 100% if anything the people who work hard and earn these high wages should pay less tax in my view is would encourage more people to work hard and become sucessful, I cannot say I am in the higher wage bracket but I am fairly high up the ranking and everyday I wonder whether to give up everything i have worked for and go on benifits like everyone else or work part time in Asda. The government do nothing but put people off working hard and being successful, if someone on benifits can buy all their 16 children Nike shoes and Gap clothes while the people working hard have to save to pay their huge tax bills there def something wrong with the world.

[shomer42]

Why are people complaining about paying more tax so Labour can give it to the people who caused this economic problem in the first place?

Don't people understand that the thick the stupid and the lazy need our help?

I say we make taxes 100% for successful people so we can hand it out to people that really don't deserve it.

Yours Sincerely

G Brown, MP

[kinell]

shomer,

very droll.... and true

[jno]

this will have the effect of driving all our much-loved investment bankers to work in the USA, where tax is lower.

I hope they are made to feel welcome there.

[baileybird]

it is not fair. we should all pay the same proportion of our wages in tax. why should someone who has worked hard and been remunerated accordingly pay for others. I have never ever earned this sort of money but still don't think it is fair that some people should say more than others.

[kinell]

The bailey bird speaks common sense.

I dont mind paying more in total but for the rate to increment upwards is very unfair.

We all consume services that have to be paid for.

Tell you what, these banking employees now out of work do not get benefits proportionately higher in lieu of the higher rate of tax input over the years.

The more you put in the less you can have out....

Unless you put nothing in of course, then you get at least the same and often more.

[dundurn]

Any change to the tax rules is always "unfair" at first and them you find that people adjust to it. In this case the adjustment will take the form of higher salaries. To persuade someone to take a new job in the higher wage bracket that attracts the new tax level will gradually cost more to offset the higher wages. This is exactly what happened when the top tax rate was 19/6 in the pound.

And when the tax rates come down again (assuming they do under a Tory government) those salaries will remain high, thereby giving the top earners an "unwarranted" pay boost - just like they did last time, when all the rates were reduced.

To have a taxation system at all will always involve inequity. The job of good government is to mitigate tha inequity where it can. The role of good citizenship is to pay your whack and thank God you live in a democracy. You'll get your chance to exercise your franchise at the next election and (provided you don't upset the ed) I believe it's still possible to exercise free speech through AB if nowhere else!

[nedflanders]

Did i miss something? I thought that the high earner income tax increase was to ease the loss of 2.5% on VAT that was reduced to try and stimulate the economy to keep WORKING people in jobs. How exactly do the workshy benefit from this?