MSE News: Super-rich must give more, says Nick Clegg

Loopgames

I don't think taxing the rich is a good idea.

I like that the wealthier you become the more tax efficient you can become..it's quite rewarding knowing your smart thinking has it's rewards...encourages poor people to think smart:D..unless they have the mentality that there is an 'us and them'

Anyway how much would we save if we cut mps salaries along with their expense budgets?..oh and the lords and the royals..ironically the largest benefit benificiaries surely..

dazza.mk

You'd think Clegg might have reflected on Cameron's comments re: the new higher rate of French tax a couple of months ago as to why this wouldn'twork as stated above.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/g20-summit/9342442/G20-summit-Francois-Hollande-not-amused-by-David-Camerons-tax-jibe.html

cepheus

We need to reverse and repair the effect of inequality. See the evidence

One method is by tax, but of course if people are earning far more than their useful contribution to society 100% tax or even greater is not unreasonable. Why should people be paid anything to trash the economy and create misery?

The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality.

RobStaffs

Clearly a politically motivated salvo.Cameron will want to push through another £10b of public sector/welfare cuts and the public perception of the elite paying the same marginal rate of tax as many middle class workers is a problem.Cant see it happening but Liberals need to create clear blue water in the run up to the next election.

antrobus

cepheus wrote: »

... Why should people be paid anything to trash the economy and create misery?...

You're saying that we should demand that Gordon Brown and Ed Balls repay their government salaries?

smala01

There are simply not enough rich people around to make any dent in this nations problems.

This is a distraction to the more painful issue. Poor people will still need to pay more for the public services they consume.

The longer we ignore this basic fact, the worse the problem comes for us in years to come.

Smala01

Takeaway_Addict

The richest 10% of people in the UK pay over 50% of all income tax...never mind all the associated tax through their spending as has been said above.

They pay plenty IMO and its control of the costs that need to be concentrated on

psychic_teabag

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

The richest 10% of people in the UK pay over 50% of all income tax...never mind all the associated tax through their spending as has been said above.

Does "richest" necessarily mean "those with highest income" ? I assumed that he was after money from those with lots of capital but who are not paying their share of tax. Perhaps he's after a handout from some of the lottery winners or something.

simplymegreg

Just to recap...

We must get our structural deficit down. I think it is currently running at around 8.5% of GDP. This equates to ROUGHLY (depending upon which figures you believe) £120bn. Does Nick Clegg believe that imposing an emergency tax on the 'super wealthy' could raise anywhere near this amount? Not to mention the negatives that this tax could have on UK tax receipts through avoidance and so on. His approach is naive at best.

These types of political outbursts are quite worrying. They simply demonstrate that the Government is lost or, at best, stagnant with the task of how to tackle this deficit.

If an individual is running a deficit they can a) cut down or b) re-finance. On a state level imposing 'emergency' taxation, in my eyes, is simply a bailout. It is akin to me basically begging wealthy people for money to fund my lifestyle if I were to fall into debt. The key difference that donating money via charity is voluntary whereas taxation is involuntary (or at least should be).

We cannot afford the current level of state spending. Can we afford general social welfare? Doubtful. Can we afford HS2 rail infrastructure and London Crossrail? Surely not!

Germany's deficit, I think, is set to reach 0.35% of GDP soon. Perhaps it may be prudent to look at why there is such a large difference between theirs and ours.

My two cents!

wantsajob

Just go after the tax dodgers effectively. Mr J. Carr (cough cough).

But to be honest, if we could, we'd all go to a country that charges no income tax - wouldn't we?! And there's plenty of them out there! The only reason all of us stay here is we're effectively anchored with a ball and chain, to our jobs, which are effectively slave labour, even to the middle classes. Unfortunately jobs are invariably not there in places where there are no taxes. Only the super rich can, and do, move to live in such tax-free havens.

Why buy that DVD at a high street store for £15, when you can have it delivered to your door in a few days off the internet for £8?! Of course the same principle applies to taxes. If you increase taxes, you merely create a tax economy, whereby people and businesses move purely to avoid taxes. It becomes cheaper to move business abroad, like we've seen with countless manufacturing businesses disappearing to China, increasing the unemployed. The same way high street stores unable to compete with the internet are closing stores, or going bankrupt. They simply can't compete with the cheaper option! Why pay millions in tax here year on year, when for a few hundred thousand you can move abroad to somewhere with lower tax rates, and put the majority of those millions in your pocket?!

My personal view is the end result of things like this is in hundreds of years, money will no longer have any value, and there'll be pure stateless communism the world over. Of course the only barrier to this at present is the rich want to keep a firm grip on their share of the world's resources.