Distributive justice

[Colonial]

Brother D said:

So out of interest, what would the UK flat tax rate be?

Income tax and NI last year amounted to 550B, but I can't seem to find out what the personal gross income is on average to work out what the flat rate tax would be?

I have a feeling it woud be around 30% in order to match existing revenues. - Which if you're earning a minimum wage of 10-15k a year is quite a chunk... So say first 10K tax-free - what would it be then?

The flat tax rate in Greenland is around 47% I think.

I don't think the flat tax rate crowd would like that very much.

Oh - business owner, company director, well built, too much testosterone for a goatee so full beard. I pay a decent amount of tax. I also respect the social safety net as it meant I could go on to be a productive member of society.

[mondeoman]

Who said anything about a flat rate tax???

What I was referring to was the latest round of "tax the rich more, they can afford it" bks that being spouted before Xmas: if anyone cant understand that 25% of £100k is a st load more than 25% of £30k and thinks someone on £100k should "pay more" then they aren't just "socialist" - they are "thick socialist".

[Colonial]

Yes, but having been both poor and comfortably well off, I can afford to pay more tax now.

And the "threat" of having to pay more tax doesn't stop me from setting up a business, employing staff or anything like that either.

[P-Jay]

mondeoman said:

Who said anything about a flat rate tax???

What I was referring to was the latest round of "tax the rich more, they can afford it" bks that being spouted before Xmas: if anyone cant understand that 25% of £100k is a st load more than 25% of £30k and thinks someone on £100k should "pay more" then they aren't just "socialist" - they are "thick socialist".

I don't understand your point? A flat rate tax system would mean exactly as you've described everyone would pay the same percentage of their income as tax - so based on your 25% (it would be much higher) someone on £100k would pay £25k a year and someone on £30k would pay £7500 so yes the richer* man would still pay more?

Are you advocating a completely flat amount of tax paid for everyone in the UK - I.E. the total amount of revenue required from income tax in the UK simple divided by the number of tax payers? You do realise that the figure would be more than likely higher than a large number of people's total income?

Or are you just having a rant at sound bite you heard you didn't like the sound of?

• Richer by income, because of course, we don't really tax wealth in the UK

[thehawk]

I'm not a fan of income tax at all, think it should be abolished and we solely raise revenue from consumption and business taxes.

However the redistribution of wealth thing has had me puzzling over the last few days as how the system really works and whether it is efficient.

I read the other day that the top 100 richest people in the world had increased their net worth by something like $220 billion in the last 12 months alone, I mean just how much is enough and how does this money get back into the system. Surely there comes a point in true capitalism where all the money eventually flows to the top?