MSE News: Mega rich tax bill 'under 10%', while millions pay 22%

Paul_Herring

MonkeyMad wrote: »

"Six percent of £10 million-plus earners paid less than 10% in tax, Treasury figures reveal"

94%of £10M+ earners paid 10% or more in Tax?

Yes..... your point?

Randvegeta

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Yes..... your point?

I think the point is, people who make that much money can probably find ways around tax almost completely through offshore companies and the like. So its astonishing that they pay more than 10%!

That being said, were I earning 10,000,000 /yr, I probably wouldn worry about the 40/45/50 percent tax rate. 5M-6M is plenty for me in 1 year :-).

If it was a meager 2,000,000 /yr then yeah I'd consider tax avoidance schemes. hehe

MonkeyMad

The point is that the vast majority of mega-earners paid more than 10% tax on their income which is nowhere near as impressive as the headline. Would look so impressive if it was '6% pay less than 10%, 25% pay 20%, and the rest pay >40%' would it.

Rich people might fiddle their taxes. So does my plumber - whats your point?

danothy

MonkeyMad wrote: »

Rich people might fiddle their taxes. So does my plumber - whats your point?

I believe the objection to the rich doing it is usually along the lines of "they can afford not to, and so should not" or "they shouldn't because they are likely to be avoiding a greater amount of tax than your plumber".

That sort of ignores the fact that they still pay way more tax than your plumber, and doesn't explain why being able to afford to do (or not do) something means you should have more obligation to do it (or not do it) than your plumber.

John_Pierpoint

Seriously rich people have the4 ability to move anywhere in this world (more or less) and they will get a welcome.

Poorer people cannot.

Rich people have powers that poor people don't.

Poor people also tend to believe that their government can make 2 + 2 = 5.
Intelligent people know that their government, well not in the last 100 years anyway, cannot make 2 + 2 =5

Rich people know they can make investments so that 2 +2 = 5, but they cannot see any point in giving the extra "one" or even half of it to the government elected by poor people.

It is that simple.

Now watch the Irish referendum and see what happens.

Hands up any seriously rich person with money still in a Greek bank.

WHA

Tax planning is done by everyone, rich and poor. Just had a classic example when talking to a policeman client who says that when he and his colleagues work overtime, they ask for time off in lieu rather than paying over 40% in tax and NIC (they're already higher rate taxpayers!). They say it's just not worth having the money when they only get just over half of it! So there you have "normal" people, who aren't millionaires, who are taking legal tax planning action or avoiding tax just like those few millionaires will have done.

Credit-Crunched

WHA wrote: »

Tax planning is done by everyone, rich and poor. Just had a classic example when talking to a policeman client who says that when he and his colleagues work overtime, they ask for time off in lieu rather than paying over 40% in tax and NIC (they're already higher rate taxpayers!). They say it's just not worth having the money when they only get just over half of it! So there you have "normal" people, who aren't millionaires, who are taking legal tax planning action or avoiding tax just like those few millionaires will have done.

I agree, how many 'normal' people have worked on the hobble, people who buy and sell on e-bay without filing tax returns....

MonkeyMad

Judging by the number of people who think that almost any mobile phone contract must be a good deal because it has loads of 'free' minutes, I can't imagine most of the populace give any thought to minimising their tax exposure, and instead choose to class those that do as 'greedy'.