Banker's exodus possible - does anyone care?

kabayiri

You know what?

I think I've changed my mind. I might not like the idea of bankers earning vast sums, but the realist in me wants the tax take now.

We can let the law makers address any perceived imbalance in the longer term.

I wouldn't mind some of these bankers living and working in Manchester though. It seems unfair that London still gets all the cream.

ThrowingStonesAtYou

misskool wrote: »

And footballers, if you really loved the game so much, do you need to get paid £100k a week just to go around and run in the field for 90 minutes?

You can't blame the footballers, if people want to pay through the nose to watch them they are entitled to a cut of the profits they generate.

Does seem strange to me about the outcry about £30 bank charges when the very same people willingly get mugged for £40+ for a ticket to the footy every Saturday

lostinrates

doire wrote: »

Last 1,700 people lost their jobs when a Corus plant shutdown.

This week we have bankers complaining their bonuses are to be taxed by 50%

Its terrible for the people who have lost their jobs, I am very sincerely sorry for them and want to return to a situation of greater employment and profitable country. Perhaps everyone in employment should pay a 50% tax this year to help them out? Everyone refuse their child benefit and tax benefit to scrape by so that we can spread it a bit more evenly?

Form an orderly line folks....

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

Its terrible for the people who have lost their jobs, I am very sincerely sorry for them and want to return to a situation of greater employment and profitable country. Perhaps everyone in employment should pay a 50% tax this year to help them out? Everyone refuse their child benefit and tax benefit to scrape by so that we can spread it a bit more evenly?

Form an orderly line folks....

But it's £50k on a piece. Not all.

If you factor in council tax, a lot of lower wage earners are taxed at 50% almost because the difference between CT on a 1-bed flat for somebody on low wages or a 50 bedroom mansion for somebody with a £2million bonus isn't proportional.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

But it's £50k on a piece. Not all.

If you factor in council tax, a lot of lower wage earners are taxed at 50% almost because the difference between CT on a 1-bed flat for somebody on low wages or a 50 bedroom mansion for somebody with a £2million bonus isn't proportional.

I agree, its not proportional, but neither is the tax already paid by higher earners, soon to be paid by even higher earners.

there was a tax thing on Radio four earlier this week...questions and answers, and one guy (own business and employer) reckoned he was paying something like 67% tax before the rest of those life costs. ( CT etc)

Its NOT a clear cut moral issue: I think the simplification andcharacterisation is what I object to most.

kmmr

ThrowingStonesAtYou wrote: »

You can't blame the footballers, if people want to pay through the nose to watch them they are entitled to a cut of the profits they generate.

Which is pretty much what the bankers get. If you earn £100m for your firm, I think getting a £1m bonus seems a reasonable cut. If you don't get a cut, then why bother next year... so you earn the company £50m and the owners (taxpayers!) lose.

There is lots wrong with that system, mainly around the 'one way bet' nature of it, but that is being addressed by giving delayed and returnable bonuses. But in essence, if you make a profit, it seems reasonable that you can expect a cut of it.

If you ran any business that has £10m in turnover, and your profit was £1m, would you hand it over to the government as you felt bad about it? Or £100k in turnover, and £20k profit... where is the line that it is ok to accept??

abaxas

kmmr wrote: »

Which is pretty much what the bankers get. If you earn £100m for your firm, I think getting a £1m bonus seems a reasonable cut. If you don't get a cut, then why bother next year... so you earn the company £50m and the owners (taxpayers!) lose.

There is lots wrong with that system, mainly around the 'one way bet' nature of it, but that is being addressed by giving delayed and returnable bonuses. But in essence, if you make a profit, it seems reasonable that you can expect a cut of it.

If you ran any business that has £10m in turnover, and your profit was £1m, would you hand it over to the government as you felt bad about it? Or £100k in turnover, and £20k profit... where is the line that it is ok to accept??

The problem was that all the UK banks were insolvent and required goverment assistance, either directly or via the BOE.

The banks do not exist without this. Should insolvent businesses pay bonuses? that is the question here.

ThrowingStonesAtYou

abaxas wrote: »

The problem was that all the UK banks were insolvent and required goverment assistance, either directly or via the BOE.

The banks do not exist without this. Should insolvent businesses pay bonuses? that is the question here.

I'd suggest insolvent businesses need to enforce performance related pay more than most other businesses.

The problem all along was the criteria banks decided to use to award bonuses. This 50% tax proposal appears to be taking away the correct solution, which would be to apply appropriate long-term criteria when deciding bonus allocation.

abaxas

ThrowingStonesAtYou wrote: »

I'd suggest insolvent businesses need to enforce performance related pay more than most other businesses.

So you beleive that business that have gone bust should pay bonuses after the event?

!!!!!!!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

abaxas wrote: »

So you beleive that business that have gone bust should pay bonuses after the event?

!!!!!!!

Except they didn't go bust.

They were rescued as the consequences of them going bust were too great.

The people that lost money are mostly no longer there, and you don't get a bonus for losing money anyway. Bonuses that were paid years ago for those deals that did go sour are already gone and these current bonuses are for profit made THIS year, AFTER the bailouts.

So now they owe us billions..... The people there now are making profits for the banks..... And the likes of carolt want to penalise the very people who are now making the money they'll use to pay us back???

Words cannot describe the contempt I feel for such ignorant, populist, claptrap.:rolleyes: