London mayoral candidates publish tax records

tartanterra

Not sure what to read into this. Is it a bad thing if all our our representatives at all levels start to be upfront about their financial arrangements?

I do think it's a symptom of the public's mistrust in politicians.

In the 2010-11 tax year

Conservative Mr Johnson paid £210,410 income tax on an income of £473,280.

Labour's Mr Livingstone paid £22,691 tax on an income of £94,568. He also paid £11,970 in corporation tax.

Liberal Democrat Mr Paddick paid £14,534 in tax on an income of £76,804.

And Green Party candidate Ms Jones paid £15,577 in income tax on an income of £63,028.

Generali

Interesting that the Fat Cat Tory paid almost 45% tax whilst the socialist paid a little more than 35%.

Wookster

Generali wrote: »

Interesting that the Fat Cat Tory paid almost 45% tax whilst the socialist paid a little more than 35%.

Not to mention the fact that he didn't publish details on his company, only what he received from his company by way of salary & dividends.

I hope this comes back to scupper his campaign.

princeofpounds

How do paddick and jones earn their money?

Generali

princeofpounds wrote: »

How do paddick and jones earn their money?

Paddick gets a pension as an ex-copper.

Jones is a member of the London Assembly.

misskool

Wow, politicians make quite a lot of money.

vivatifosi

The big issue for me in all this is not how people pay tax, it is that Livingstone said that tax avoidance essentially was the preserve of the "rich b*stards" and that they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

To quote Andrew Gilligan:
The big problem for Livingstone is that he has been a vocal supporter of UK Uncut, which campaigns against not just (illegal) tax evasion but also (legal) tax avoidance – by Vodafone, Topshop and other big companies. "These rich !!!!!!!s just don't get it," Livingstone wrote in 2009. "No one should be allowed to vote in a British election, let alone sit in our parliament, unless they are paying their full share of tax." The former London mayor called for everyone to "pay tax at the same rate on their earnings and all other income".

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100142332/ken-livingstone-tax-avoidance-his-supporters-disquiet-grows/

Do as I say, not as I do.

julieq

I followed this yesterday. It's far worse for Ken than it seems, even if you leave aside the NIC avoidance which is pretty hypocritical.

His partner has one of two shares in the company and so got the same dividend. It appears that the corporation tax has been essentially double counted. A great deal of money has been retained in his company, and it appears despite earning more than Boris he has arranged his tax affairs to avoid being in the 50% band, presumably for political reasons. There are also some questionable tax deductible political donations rumoured to be in the full statement.

Nothing wrong with this in itself - all the measures are legal - except that he has used tax as a weapon of attack in his campaigning. As well as anti-semitism and a lot of unpleasant slurring.

What he has managed to engineer is a situation where in fact he's destroyed his own career, may have damaged the labour party, at a time when the tories looked in serious trouble on tax. To appear as a fatter cat than the fat cats under attack is a serious political miscalculation. And frankly he deserves everything he's unleashed upon himself.

Good article here: http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2012/04/06/death-by-a-thousand-nics-beckons-for-the-livingstone-campaign

misskool

red ken is red-faced?

michaels

ITs OK, despite all the issues raised including the dodgy political funding the BBC have never felt this in any way deserves mentioning so it is clearly not a real story (or else the BBC are institutionally biased...)

tartanterra wrote: »

Not sure what to read into this. Is it a bad thing if all our our representatives at all levels start to be upfront about their financial arrangements?

I do think it's a symptom of the public's mistrust in politicians.

In the 2010-11 tax year

Generali

misskool wrote: »

Wow, politicians make quite a lot of money.

Boris is a journo. All of them will make some money from public speaking.

I heard a Ken speech once. I can see why people pay to listen to him despite my disagreeing with him.