Income tax reform suggestions

[nmlowe]

Whats all this nonsense about increasing tax for high earners?
Who in their right mind would be happy giving 60% of their earnings to the big old bottomless pit???

High earners already pay more money than low earners. That's what percentage means!!!
If everyone had to pay £10,000 a year in taxes regardless of income then that could be seen as a little unfair.
Would it also mean that entrepreneurs will shift their businesses and homes abroad to avoid paying excessive levels of tax?
Would this mean that job losses are likely? I think so!
What incentive is there to work hard all your life, ending up in a good well paid job as a surgeon, lawyer, architect etc etc...
Might as well skip school like all the loosers and get a job stacking shelves at tesco's to avoid being mugged by the treasury.
Surely people should be encouraged to aim for good well paid jobs.

Good job the govornment is denying that it will raise taxes!

>>> Edited by nmlowe on Friday 20th June 13:40

[apeebles]

The overall tax burden is too high already....!

I'm currently enjoying the winter in Australia and although the highest income tax rate here is 47% that appears to be it. I.e fuel, food and wine is cheap! So is property!!!!

I could go on but it's getting late.

[Dr Chuff]

I've just read some of the comments about this on the BBC site, and they are, as usual, like pieces from the Viz top tips sections. Neil is right, percentages are not understood by all!

Did Denis Healy really introduce a 98% band?!!

Looking at the figures, 1.3 million extra people pay 40% tax over last year, so why not just raise the lower band level a bit and leave everything else as is.
It wouldn't be so bad if the Govt knew what to do with the money apart from pi55ing it away into the breeze!

Dr C
(Most definitely lower band)

[tonybav]

Yep top rate of tax 83% plus a 15% surcharge on unearned income such as interest income = 98%.

[Jinx]

Dr Chuff said:

so why not just raise the lower band level a bit and leave everything else as is. Dr C (Most definitely lower band)

The already did this by not increasing the Tax allowance by inflation in the last budget.

[Eliminator]

This is a trawl to guage public reaction. Best idea is fax your MP. Enough weight of paper and they drop the idea. No real response - the public will sit still for this and it becomes policy.

[icamm]

Jinx said:

Dr Chuff said: so why not just raise the lower band level a bit and leave everything else as is. Dr C (Most definitely lower band) The already did this by not increasing the Tax allowance by inflation in the last budget.

Read http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3006454.stm for the BBC's take on this. 1.3 million people have moved into the high rate tax band since 1997 (from 2 million to 3.3 million). The principal was, of course, started by he Tories and perfected by New Labour.

[monsieur_x]

Russia has the right idea - a top rate of tax of 13%. This means that a country that only 15 years ago was the world's premier communist dictatorship now has a tax rate lower than the supposedly "free market capitalist" (ha) USA. The United Kingdom is not even in the picture.