The rich are paying far too much tax poor things!

[Rum]

Unemployment is close to a record high, the cost of living goes up inexorably, the economy limps along - all at a time when the gap between rich and poor widens even further and then these twats...

"Wealth creators" - meaning the rich, "entrepreneurs" - meaning the rich, "talented workers" - meaning the rich. Gorge Orwell would be proud. It genuinely sickens me.

From ther BBC at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14810323

High 50p tax rate damages UK, say leading economists


Twenty leading economists have urged the government to drop the top 50p tax rate, which they say is doing "lasting damage" to the UK economy.

In a letter to the Financial Times, they say it should be axed "at the earliest opportunity" to boost growth.

It comes as Chancellor George Osborne says short-term economic forecasts for the UK have been revised down.

He has said the 50p rate on earnings over £150,000 - introduced by Labour - is only a temporary measure.

The 20 signatories include two former members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), DeAnne Julius and Sushil Wadhwani and are part of a campaign being promoted through a PR firm.

The 20 economists say around 320,000 taxpayers pay the highest rate of tax, 1% of the total number.

They state that the UK has "one of the highest personal tax regimes in the industrialised world, making it less competitive internationally, and making us less attractive as a destination for both foreign investment and talented workers".

Talk to those around George Osborne and there's precious little enthusiasm for the 50p top rate of tax.

The question is not so much whether to get rid of it but how to get rid of it.

The problem is not just selling such a policy to the electorate - remember all that rhetoric about those with the broadest shoulders bearing the heaviest burden - but also squaring such a move with the Lib Dems.

The hope is that the review being carried out by Revenue and Customs into the 50p rate will conclude early next year that far from raising revenue, the 50p rate may actually cost the Treasury money.

Why? Because it deters international investors from coming here and encourages other wealthy individuals to leave Britain.

Then, the expectation is this could provide Mr Osborne with the necessary political cover to scrap the tax well before the next election.

The letter, whose signatories also include Professor Danny Quah from the London School of Economics and the veteran monetarist Professor Patrick Minford of Cardiff University, calls on the coalition, "to drop the 50p tax at the earliest opportunity as part of a package of measures to stimulate growth". It was organised by Bridget Rosewell, chairwoman of Volterra Consulting.

Ms Julius told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that many hedge funds had already moved to Switzerland and that "historically" if marginal rates were raised on "a small number of highly mobile people you end up not collecting the tax that you'd hoped to".

The points outlined in the letter, that higher tax rates punish wealth creators and could make people settle elsewhere, echo those made when tougher taxes were introduced for so-called non-doms, individuals who spend a lot of time in the UK but are not resident for tax purposes.

In a speech on Tuesday, Chancellor George Osborne said recent economic data had led to short term forecasts being revised down - but pledged to stick to his budget deficit-cutting plans.

"While we have all had to revise down our short-term expectations over recent weeks, the only people who should be fundamentally re-examining their view of the world are those who thought that this time was different."

The previous Labour government introduced the 50p tax rate on high earners, intended as an emergency measure to tackle the deficit, in former chancellor Alistair Darling's final budget in 2010.

His successor, Mr Osborne, decided to keep it in his first two budgets but always said it was a temporary measure. In March he said: "I've said before that now wouldn't be the right time to remove it, when we're asking others in our society on much lower incomes to make sacrifices."

He also said in the past that it "would do lasting damage to our economy if it were to become permanent".

Mr Osborne has asked HMRC to review how much money is being brought in from the 50p band, something that it will not be able to complete until after the deadline for this tax year's self-assessment forms in January 2012.

In response to the FT letter, a Treasury spokesman said: "The government is committed to a competitive tax system, but in reducing the deficit, we have always been clear that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the greatest burden."

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the FT letter echoed the views of the business lobbying organisation the CBI, and various Conservative backbenchers.

He said Mr Osborne wants to axe the 50p rate - but the argument was as much about political symbolism - the argument that the rich should pay more - as it was about the economy.

He would also have to square the decision with the Conservatives' coalition partners - the Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told the BBC in July that anybody who believed abolishing the 50p tax rate was a priority was in "cloud cuckoo land".

And former Labour chancellor Mr Darling told the BBC the 50p rate must "stay in place until we get through this crisis".

"It would be grossly unfair to remove it . If they don't pay their tax the it's the poorer people, the people of low incomes who are going to pay."

Elsewhere in the world, wealthy individuals including France's richest woman Liliane Bettencourt and the US billionaire investor Warren Buffet have both said they would be happy to pay higher taxes.

A statement from shadow chancellor Ed Balls' office said a better way of boosting the economy would be to cut the VAT rate from its current 20%.

"Labour has said that temporarily reversing the government's VAT rise - which we believe has helped to choke off the economic recovery - is the right priority for the moment."

[Feck]

Over and over again they trot out this rubbish . Strange Because money spent by governments on welfare generates more money moving round the economy than tax cuts FACT Money spent by government on education R&D infrastructure not only stimulates the economy but helps the country when a recovery happens . Have we forgotten Thatcherism ?

[MrJonno]

20 economists who probably pay the higher level of tax and are paid by people who also pay this (or at least should) pay this tax say it would be better for the country if they they personally paid less tax.

Some cynical people may say there is a clash of interest there

[Atheist-Lite]

Socialists will always expect the rich to bail them out when they run short of cash. They only know how to spend money not save it. Expecting those who do preserve their wealth to help the spendthrift out when times are hard is expecting a lot. Maybe if they'd have saved rather than spent in the good years they'd have something now? Losers?

[Robert_S]

Socialists will always expect the rich to bail them out when they run short of cash. They only know how to spend money not save it. Expecting those who do preserve their wealth to help the spendthrift out when times are hard is expecting a lot. Maybe if they'd have saved rather than spent in the good years they'd have something now? Losers?

Socialists are like ants and the rich are like aphids.

[Atheist-Lite]

Socialists will always expect the rich to bail them out when they run short of cash. They only know how to spend money not save it. Expecting those who do preserve their wealth to help the spendthrift out when times are hard is expecting a lot. Maybe if they'd have saved rather than spent in the good years they'd have something now? Losers?

Socialists are like ants and the rich are like aphids.

Must make the very rich like people then?

[Feck]

Socialists will always expect the rich to bail them out when they run short of cash. They only know how to spend money not save it. Expecting those who do preserve their wealth to help the spendthrift out when times are hard is expecting a lot. Maybe if they'd have saved rather than spent in the good years they'd have something now? Losers?

Maybe if when the economy was booming the governments didn't cut taxes to the rich and excuse companies massive amounts of tax then the government could have invested money (or paid off some of it's debt ) And the tax is on INCOME not on what they have but on the money coming into their hands which even now 'when times are hard ' is considerable and year by year it becomes more considerable when compared to what the poorest people have . You talk of savings like poor people don't have any because they are stupid ..... FUCK you Poor people don't have savings because they don't have spare money they don't need, lying around to save .

[Pensioner]

[Atheist-Lite]

The poor do waste money. They drink and they smoke far more than high income people. They gamble at the bookies which is not exactly a wise investment unless you happen to be a bookie. Given the choice they cannot delay gratification which is why they and their relatives are so poor.

[PsychoSerenity]

Crumple, do you actually believe any of that? Or are you just trying to wind people up?

[Atheist-Lite]

Crumple, do you actually believe any of that? Or are you just trying to wind people up?

The feckless poor are a reality. They do exist and are not a invention of mine.

[Mallardz]

I imagine the 20 top UK economists are in the 50ptax band anyway.
I see why they want it cut.