to wonder why many people assume that rich people don't pay tax

[Redpipe]

when the figures today show that the top 0.5% of earner actually pay a third of all tax collected.

I have seen many posters here immediate jump to the assumption that the rich don't actually pay tax in debates about taxation or about government cuts.

AIBU to think that people who claim the rich don't pay enough or that many of them evade tax are actually talking about a tiny percentage of top earners and that the vast vast majority of top earner pay their share.

I would love to set up a charity or make big tax deductable contributions to charity or get paid 10k to be the 'face' of a charoty otlr 60k to frontnout an ad campaign for one.

I don't have the choice many wealthy people do have the choice and don't do anything selfless with their money. Agai prpportionally the lower waged give much more time and money.

btw to be in the top 10% of earners in the third wealthiest economy in the world?! how rich do you want to be? ??

yes but don't you see that inequity of wealth means that the 'nice Roch people's ypu know' are not tied uo in their own selectors because they have phenomenonal safety nets and freedoms to make choices. .. but as a group resent those freedoms being given to the majority

wondering how many 'people who know nice rich people' are suffering from the Fawlty effect

What?

You are making a whole lot of assumptions there NotDead.

"I would love to set up a charity or make big tax deductable contributions to charity or get paid 10k to be the 'face' of a charoty otlr 60k to frontnout an ad campaign for one. "

Seriously notdead listen to yourself. You really do despise wealthy people don't you. I suspect you are one of the people my OP is about.

You make sweeping personality generalisations based upon someones wealth. Dear God!

bachsingingmum - The problem with your oft-repeated analogy is that it fails to take into account how the rich person in the scenario achieved their wealth in the first place. Wealth redistribution is based on the argument that people accumulate wealth at the expense of others. To use another analogy, capitalism is a pyramid, with more at the bottom than at the top, but take away the bottom blocks and the top will come tumbling down. The whole tax them too much and they'll bugger off argument can be turned on its head to say treat the poor too badly and they'll revolt.

To me, it's all about fairness. And that applies to rich and poor. I would not make sweeping generalisations about any group of people based on one defining factor. Some people are selfish arses. They can be poor or rich.

However, to play devil's advocate, research consistently shows that the better off someone becomes, the less of their income they donate to charity proportionally...

notdead

Google Chuck Feeney or is he just giving his money to good causes to avoid tax?

Yes, a lot of rich people do pay tax. Mr Dyson is a very good example from a business and, I would therefore assume, a personal point of view.

I'm always amazed at the number of students I know whose parents are accountants who get a full maintenance grant. No doubt, their tax returns are based on similar information. I guess they're either very good or very bad accountants.

we're an example of that Scholes - set up a specialist accountancy practice, ask for Current Year Assessment for Student Finance England, despite business taking off, can't get out of CYA system till next year, so DD gets loan + grant for three years based on our first year of a new business. Nothing to do with sharp practices, dodgy accountancy or a desire to avoid/minimise tax. Lots to do with SFE being generally rubbish though.

OP YANBU.

I dislike the way people think that it's ok for people who earn more to be paying a higher percentage of their income. Too many people have the attitude of 'oh, they still have much more after tax than I have therefore they can afford to pay even more' . Little appreciation of the fact that they are paying considerably more in tax and probably benefitting very little from it - just more 'we don't have what they have so they shouldn't have it' mentality.

IMO a much fairer tax system would be based on a higher 'no-tax' threshold which people on the lowest incomes would benefit from and a fixed rate for everyone else. Yes, some people will have more after they've paid their taxes but why shouldn't they?

I like the drinks in a pub analogy.

I earn £115k. I pay about £40k a year tax, I'm effectively taxed at 60% on everything over £100k because of the loss of personal allowance. I don't think I'm better than anyone, in fact I'm pretty confident that most people are better than me.
Most people don't even understand the tax system well enough to be able to judge who does and doesn't pay enough tax to be honest.

notdead honestly, you are really offensive.

Most people don't even understand the tax system well enough to be able to judge who does and doesn't pay enough tax to be honest.

Including HMRC I sometimes feel.

I'm disappointed notdead hasn't come back on to hear how her last few posts have been received.