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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think Adelle is greedy, ignorant and ungrateful?

179 replies

MrIC · 26/05/2011 10:55

www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/25/adele-tax-grievances

Surely most people would just be pleased that they'd earned £8 million, and grateful to the general public for spending so much money on her music?

Also, while she clearly doesn't realise trains have been privatised, she presumably never plans to use a road or pavement again - as clearly her tax bill couldn't go towards paying for them? Likewise I imagine she never plans to avail herself of the police, fire or ambulance services? Nor of course is she benefiting financially from the various free-trade agreements (worked out at the taxpayers' expense) that allow her to sell her music overseas and thus get such a whopping tax bill? She make think state schools are shit, but she went to one - who does she think paid for it?

Why is it the more money people seem to earn the stingier they get?

OP posts:
EricNorthmansMistress · 26/05/2011 12:47

She'd have earnt more than 8m to get a 4m tax bill, it's not 50% of earned income it's 50% of earned income over 50k. Anyway she still earns loads of money twat

ikoto · 26/05/2011 12:48

InmaculadaConcepcion- I know thats the way it has to work but I wouldn't expect the people subsidising everyone else to be happy about it.

MainlyMaynie · 26/05/2011 12:49

She is being very silly. I wasn't that thick at 23, I don't see how age comes into it. And we certainly don't all look at the taxes we pay and moan. I don't look at mine at all, only at the take home pay part. I know I'm a higher rate tax payer, don't mind and don't check how much it costs me. I just don't think of it as my money.

Honeybee79 · 26/05/2011 12:49

YANBU.

I actually feel embarrassed for her.

nijinsky · 26/05/2011 12:49

I also don't agree that those who work hard and earn more are somehow less entitled to opinions.

aldiwhore · 26/05/2011 12:53

I'll be honest, I don't LIKE handing over lots of our earnings to the taxman, even though I believe in contributing to society and paying a preportion of income to the man.

BUT, I wouldn't whine about it publically.... its just one of those things we have to do, its right to do but sometimes it feels shit to do!

Silly girl though, she's made herself look a bit of a twat. (and I hate hate hate her Bob Dylan cover)

MooMooFarm · 26/05/2011 12:55

She is young and probably didn't realise how annoying what she said would be to 'normal' people.

Besides all that though, I loved her first album; then bought the second, played it once, fell asleep & have never played it since. There's only so much soulful misery you can listen to...

nijinsky · 26/05/2011 12:56

There is a strange attitude in this country sometimes though that rich people are somehow stupid and should be expected to not to complain about anything money related, that they can somehow be expected to subsidise the rest or pay more for the same thing...

latitude · 26/05/2011 12:58

She doesn't like paying taxes, neither do I. She pays in far more than she gets out and can think of things she could have if her tax burden wasn't so high which I do.

saffy85 · 26/05/2011 13:04

Poor thing. She'll be moaning that her diamond shoes are too tight soon. Hmm

Honestly, if she doesn't like it here why doesn't she fuck off somewhere else?

EdwardorEricCantDecide · 26/05/2011 13:09

but i disagree completely that she has said this "because of her age" i'm 24yrs old and since starting work at 16yo i have been aware of how much tax i pay and why i pay it. i've never grudge a penny (especially if i was left with £4M afterward)
at 24 i take an active interest in politics etc and am well aware of issues related to tax etc.

she is not ignorant just because she's young she's just plain ignorant.

leares · 26/05/2011 13:12

I don't think she's been greedy, she doesn't like giving half of her income away to the Government. It does make me wonder why she hasn't gone offshore as she could still maintain her career as a non-dom and not have to pay the high rates of tax.

Al0uiseG · 26/05/2011 13:14

She wouldn't be human if she looked at how much she had "lost" without questioning it. She's questioned it in the wrong place and obviously doesn't have the right advisors.

When she moves to a tax haven we as a country won't see any of it, maybe it is time for a rethink. Instead of encouraging overseas money to use GB as a tax haven perhaps we should look to strike a balance with our own creators of wealth.

Want2bSupermum · 26/05/2011 13:17

She needs a new accountant!

Original poster
MrIC · 26/05/2011 13:17

InmaculadaConcepcion- I know thats the way it has to work but I wouldn't expect the people subsidising everyone else to be happy about it.

actually ikoto she's not subsidising everyone else.

Everyone born in the UK receives an "investment" from the Government in the form of: schooling, medical bills, subsidised transport, child support payments, and the generally stable civil society protected and enforced by the police and armed services. These all cost money and we payback the government "investment" through our tax. Now, if this was all Adele had received, she would be paying over the odds.

However, unlike myself (and I assume yourself), Adele is a multi-platinum selling musician, which means she has benefited from services paid for by the taxpayer which you and I don't. Namely:

  • government investment in broadcasting infrastructure. This has allowed her music to be heard on radio and television (generating a huge income from royalties) and thus bought by the public.
  • free trade and intellectual copyright agreements. These, negotiated and maintained by civil servants and legal experts paid for by the taxpayer, allow her to freely export her music overseas and collect royalty payments due, while protecting her from copyright infringements.

In paying for these services through her tax bill she's simply paying back the government for services rendered....

I agree, she's young, she probably hasn't given this issues a lot of thought, so you know, fair enough being shocked by the bill (although, really, did she think musicians didn't pay tax?) But this quote:

"When I got my tax bill in, I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire."

is a bit much....

OP posts:
Want2bSupermum · 26/05/2011 13:20

Al0uiseG I agree - if she wasn't British she wouldn't be paying any tax on monies earnt overseas and she would be able to deduct certain expenses such as rent paid. It is very unfair that those using the UK as a tax haven are able to the use the public resources without paying into the system.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 26/05/2011 13:23

I know how she feels. It wasn't anything like £8m but, when I opened the slip showing my bonus yesterday and saw that it was half the original amount because of tax deducted, it rather took the shine off. Everyone's being very public-spirited saying 'I don't begrudge a penny' but I think she's only saying what a lot of people feel. Just not all that PC to articulate it in public. :) However, in a PC, PR, spin-doctor world where every celbrity fart is carefully scripted, she doesn't care what people think and I find that refreshing..

carriedababi · 26/05/2011 13:31

do you think she was saying it as a way of boasting about how much shes earning?

she will live to regreat such silly comments

she will be very Blush about this one day

ps, i thought she was a knob saying no to the roya; wedding gig for a bbq!
what a dipstick

InmaculadaConcepcion · 26/05/2011 13:34

"she doesn't care" just about sums it up, Cogito

wordfactory · 26/05/2011 13:37

Oh come on, I moan every january when it's old tax time. When you're self employed it just seems so much more massive than when you pay monthly.

Does everyone who mkaes money have to spend their entire lives being grateful? Can't they ever be allowed a little whinge...

squeakytoy · 26/05/2011 13:37

eughhh.. never heard her speak before... bit of a prick really isnt she...

Al0uiseG · 26/05/2011 13:39

I know so many people who've left the UK to work in more financially hospitable climates, i really don't think she is being that unreasonable. If she is then lots of my friends are, also my dh wants do more than open fire with a gun when he pays the tax bill.

Most extremely high earners are in that position due to their own measured risks and investments. perhaps that should be rewarded in the tax system because there is very little incentive to take risks in this country at the moment.

Now we know Adele has a cracking voice but she could have taken the sensible option and done a degree in something and gone on to utilise that in an industry which may have paid reasonably from the off but she would probably never have earned 8M in her lifetime. She took a risk, utilised her considerable talents and it has paid off.

Unlike footballers she wont be able to take an early pension. she also wont get given her other 4 Mil back if her singing career stops suddenly.

Dont forget that while she's earning that sort of money she's also spending it and 20% of what she spends goes straight to the treasury.

Id like to say Thanks to Adele for her contribution to UK plc, lets hope we don't lose her to the Caymans and any further money she brings in.

freshprincess · 26/05/2011 13:48

I'm grateful for all the services my taxes help to fund but that doesn't stop me grumbling when I see the big number on the tax bill - and mine is the tiniest fraction of hers!

She's just having the same grumble a lot of people do, but probably because of her age she is stupid enough to say it out loud to a journalist and put some eye watering numbers against it. Bit stupid, very insensitve and naive.

BertieBotts · 26/05/2011 13:50

I like her.

Al0uiseG · 26/05/2011 13:54

Tax has turned into a stick to beat people with, I wish we could turn it into a compulsory form of state insurance.

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