100% income tax?

bendix

Plus, of course, it is a double loss situation.

Not only will it not raise ANY income at all, but it will still send a message to the world's business community that the UK no longer wants them, thus diverting financial investment elsewhere.

Good work Gordon and Alaistair.

A double failure but - hey - it panders to the masses, doesnt it?

chucky

Harry_Powell wrote: »

Not really, like chucky I've seen this happen. Some of these guys are in charge of equity funds that are billions of pounds in value, that level of responsibility requires a high level of compensation. If some banks are allowed to pay large bonuses and some are not, do you think these people will stay in the banks with no bonuses?

Many investors follow fund managers, especially the very successful ones, so if one leaves a bank they often take a large number of investors with them (who also take their money with them).

it really is quite simple - if you're any good at your job you will move on to another employer who pays you more or rewards you for your performance.

people don't do these jobs because they like them but because they pay well. money talks.

Graham_Devon

chucky wrote: »

it really is quite simple - if you're any good at your job you will move on to another employer who pays you more or rewards you for your performance.

people don't do these jobs because they like them but because they pay well. money talks.

The point being they werent very good.

You have just explained greed in your second sentence. The very greed which caused all this.

bendix

Graham_Devon wrote: »

To be honest, I'm a bit tired of this whole "they will find work elsewhere".

Where?

The same people keep hailing them as genius. Yet the only reason we are discussing all of this is because the very same people bought not only the country, but the world to it's knees. And lets not pretend they were not all in it. Obviously you have exceptions where it comes to very new staff.

But where will all these people go?

Like I keep saying. We will see if they go. But I highly doubt they will. Who's going to emply someone who has left a company purely because they didnt get a bonus?

Why would another country want our failed, disgruntled bankers en masse?

In two weeks time, we shall be able to see if our bankers have voted with their feet , and left....OR, have found a way of simply getting around the system, and stay where they are.

Hundreds of bank staff upping sticks and having a masse of jobs inviting them in doesnt work in the real world either.

I got my haircut at the weekend. I go to a small place in Fulham, where many affluent young families live.

The lady who runs the shop was cutting my hair and waved to a young family walking past the window. She said the family - French - was leaving the UK next week. He is a banker and has decided to head home to France rather than stay here and be stung for massive taxes in future.

This was before the supertax was announced.

Go figure.

And it isn't just about individual bankers, Graham. It's about whole companies. Our tax department are incredibly busy right now (I work for a law firm). They are advising numerous banks, stockbroking companies, investment houses on offshore structuring. They will simply move their Head offices from London (where they and their people pay high taxes, and due to pay more) to Jersey, BVI, Cayman, Zurich etc, thus depriving the Chancellor of ALL their tax revenue.

But, like I've said, Wayne and Waynetta Sun-Reader will be happy, won't they?

chucky

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The point being they werent very good.

You have just explained greed in your second sentence. The very greed which caused all this.

i think at this point you have crossed the line where you don't know what you are talking about again.

investment banks have different layers of staff - front office, middle office, back office and many other layers of support staff. they all know perfectly well what they doing.

the global effect of falling asset prices is not something that a person who looks after documentation for North American Corporate Matrix CDS trades could actually stop.

but at least it makes good reading and is a satisfying for the Sun and Mirror readers.

bendix

Other examples, I'm aware of. The firm I work for is a partnership owned by around 120 partners in the UK. Their average income last year was over £1m a year. They are all UK domiciled.

Our same tax team are creating offshore structures for them too - resulting in an estimated net loss to the Chancellor of £54,000,000 tax from our firm alone.

And on a more personal level. I arrived in the UK in January. On my salary, I currently pay around £55-60,000 per year tax. While I grumble about it, I pay it. Needless to say, I take nothing directly out of the system in terms of benefits, NHS services, even schooling.

I've just been offered two jobs in the last two weeks. One in Singapore with 9% tax, and one in Bermuda where tax rates are 7%. Previously I wouldnt have thought twice about them, but I'm most definitely giving them serious consideration at the moment.

vivatifosi

bendix wrote: »

And it isn't just about individual bankers, Graham. It's about whole companies. Our tax department are incredibly busy right now (I work for a law firm). They are advising numerous banks, stockbroking companies, investment houses on offshore structuring. They will simply move their Head offices from London (where they and their people pay high taxes, and due to pay more) to Jersey, BVI, Cayman, Zurich etc, thus depriving the Chancellor of ALL their tax revenue.

I wish I could thank you twice for this post bendix. This is a huge issue and I don't think people realise how big it is. Its not just about the tax revenue moving offshore (which is a huge matter and the biggest) but the degree of transparency we would have and the impact on the people who work for the organisation.

For one of my 5 jobs I work in M&A research. Finding out who owns overseas companies that you want to buy is a b1tch when they are offshored. Plus there wouldn't be the same level of transparency in the accounts as to how much companies are actually worth - there would just be items in the accounts showing big management fees as the UK organisations profits are siphoned elsewhere.

Then there's the issue of the company's staff. If they are in pensions in the UK, companies here (and in the wider EU) are duty bound to pay into them, but for a company which defaults on its pension liabilities it has not been tested as to how legally you get a non-dom'd company to pay back what they owe.

There's bound to be hundreds of other little issues we haven't thought of. But you're right, a lot of people don't give two hoots about the implications.

Harry_Powell

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The point being they werent very good.

You have just explained greed in your second sentence. The very greed which caused all this.

You're tarring the wrong people Graham. Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley, Alliance and Leicester, HBOS, RBS were not brought down by their fund managers investing in equities (indeed as far as I know Northern Rock and B&B didn't have a brokerage wing), they were brought down because they loaned too much money into a single sector - property (and in the case of NR, gave 120% mortgages to people who had no way to pay them back).

Graham_Devon

Hold on. Read my initial posts, I don't agree with this tax. Neither the tax itself, or the way it is being implemented. So I'm not tarring anyone.

What I disagree with, is that they will all leave. I think that's merely blackmail.

tomterm8

Generali wrote: »

From the OP's link:



What do you think big international banks that can go where they want will do as a result? .

They will hire a lawyer. Look, this measure doesn't make a fig of difference to the big banks... they will just change the salary structure. Instead of a "bonus", the relevant employees will be paid a "special consultancy fee" for an "extraordinary project" for one year. And then, the labour government will be toast, and the conservative government will be busy cutting benefits and firing dustbinmen.