Is it time to end the 50% tax rate? Poll discussion

pollypenny

How many earners of £150,000 are on an hourly rate?

Gareth_Lazelle

pollypenny wrote: »

How many earners of £150,000 are on an hourly rate?

As regards my point above, does it matter? (either which way the playing field is not level even with flat-rate taxation),

After all, salaried employees get the same pay if they work to rule as they would working lots of overtime, so the 50% tax bracket is simply not a factor in determining how hard they work (indeed, salaried employees lose a lot of direct financial incentive to work hard at all),

Essentially - if I have a wage of £10ph on 20% tax, I can do an hours overtime for £8 return. You on your £20,000 salary get £0 for the overtime. That is not a level playing field.

On the other hand, if their pay varies in direct relationship to the effort that they put in (and that is the case for many self-employed folks) the hourly comparison is quite apt (even if not as precisely defined as an actual hourly wage). Your one-man-band solicitor, accountant or architect takes home roughly £X per hour even if they are well paid, because that is pretty much how they charge their clients,

Pema

tommygirl3 wrote: »

I think we should have one tax rate of say 30%. That way poor and rich alike pay the same proportion of their income as tax. Encourages people to better themselves and stop ppl misunderstanding the graduated tax system.

In my view the only fair way of taxing people is the progressive tax system. With VAT, council tax and the various other taxes we pay, people on lower incomes pay proportionally more of that income in tax than people on higher incomes. This is because many things we all need (gas, electric, loo paper etc) are all VATable. Poorer people have less left over following all this than rich people.

I also find it unbelievable that so many not paying the top tax rate think 50% is too much. :eek: The chances of pay rises for most of us is non-existent (not had one for at least 2 years and think I won't be getting one next year either:(); However I strongly believe in paying tax as I feel that there is something called "The Common Good" which we all need to contribute to to enable society to work.
And good on Stuart Rose! We need more like him.

pollypenny

Absolutely - paying tax is a measure of being a mature, responsible citizen in a democratic society.

They way some people bleat, you'd think they were paying 50% on all their earnings.
Maybe they should?

Occy

worldwheeler wrote: »

I would say who is going to get this fictitious pay rise?? I don't think you understand inflation and what it does or who controls "the business cycle" Capital is king and labour is slavery. The capital interests will use their bought and paid for Muppet press prostitutes to push a guilt trip on to the people that its all their fault the country is in debt!! Austerity, yes you people who went out and duped bank managers into lending you £300,000, when you work in a shop earning £19k, it is your fault and therefore all shop, factory and manual labour have to be chastised and have no services for even greater tax payments. The greater tax is used to pay the poor stupid banker who was SO fooled by the brilliant shelf stacker into lending all that paper. It's a system of wealth transfer that is run and controlled by the few people that benefit from it to the detriment of the many. "Never in the field of finance has so much been stolen from so many by so few for their own benefit"


Its all a dream. Persuade the public that one day they will be rich, a member of the elite, and they will demand protection for their masters even though these lords will tweak the controls of THEIR financial system and money supply which will ensure the people remain indentured slaves to the lords ever increasing benefit. "It's called the American dream because you can only believe it if you are asleep"

I like the cut of your jib!

I am constantly amazed how often this happens that when financial measures are applied to "the rich" "the poor" will cry stop under the misunderstanding that this might be them. It wont, if every one was rich then no one would be.

Mikhail

In Denmark the high earners pay up to 60%, but it is a good value for money for them, i.e., Danmark has one of the best in the world education, pension system and health/social care.