Income tax - top 45% rate scrapped! Bonkers!

[HoppingKangaroo]

The 45% top rate of tax (which currently applies on earnings above £150,000) will be scrapped entirely. How will this help the economy? It will just add to the government debt and it just helps out the very weathly.
Why not have more help for the poorest in the country and not have tax cuts for the very wealthy.

They ALREADY do.
It's never enough though apparently.

I think the fact that someone on £20,000 will only benefit by £283 less tax per year is basically scandalous - this group of people are facing very serious problems paying their bills as their mortgages (if not fixed), petrol, energy and food costs are all going up by more than many people can afford.

45% was not insane figure for the 1%. You talk like it was the 95% supertax The Beatles sang about under Wilson.

They need to become company directors according to Truss

What would you like as an alternative?
Everyone pays the same tax?
20% across the board?
Or would a system where the lowest earners pay 0%, then the next bracket 20%, then those above that 40%? .... oh hang on...

'still you moan about the rich paying too much' - not sure I did? I stated that the top 1% pay the lions share of taxation. As they should in a civlised society. That is a fact, not an opinion.

How much should the tax bracket be in your opininon? 50, 60, 70 %?

The absolute sociopathic mindset it takes to have the gall to say you work 5 months of the year for nothing to pay your tax. Disgusting. People are relying on food banks and people on overbloated 6 figure salaries have twisted their extreme privilege into such a grotesque narrative. It makes my blood boil.

There are also a huge number of people who contribute nothing at all, because the cant' or won't work for a living. We have developed a welfare state that is sadly seen by a significant subset as a lifestyle choice. and whilst I'm personally very happy to subsidise people not able to earn as well as I do, and those who cannot work for caring reasons or ill health, I don't enjoy funding a subset who relish scrounging off the state

Plus NI, plus the stealth tax of 60% > £100k.

No, I don't believe that all earned wealth should be redistributed, but with taxes at 45%, we are nowhere near a situation where that is even a remote possibility.

If you pay 45% tax on a very high income, you are still left with much more than the majority of people could ever hope to earn.

If you are greedy and don't give a toss about the people who are struggling to feed their families/heat their homes etc, then I guess you will focus mainly on the portion that you lose in taxes and resent having to pay it. Some people choose instead to focus on what they get to keep, and realise how lucky they are to be in a position to earn that much in the first place.

@HMSSophia presumably your business had planned for the now reversed corporation tax increase, so can I ask, will your business be increasing what you pay your staff in its place? Assuming you have staff.

Working and middle class wages have stagnated whilst top earners wages have increased dramatically, of course they should bloody pay more tax.

Wealth has been funneled to the top 1% and they have the audacity to complain about tax when they've benefitted so much from the disgusting redistribution of wealth to the top.

Totally agree with this, easy to turn on the 'lords' though isn't it.

Lets ignore the people who are systematically draining the system of public recourse, and who are too bone idol to work. I assume the retort will be, no one does that. £8.4 billion last year in benefit fraud, that we know of.

Again, poor dears. 😢

We can have this back and forth all day but you'll just have to accept people aren't going to start feeling sorry for exceptionally high earners.

Unfortunately the rich are very good at legally avoiding tax. The higher the tax rate is, the more motivation they have to avoid it. if you drop the rate, its entirely possibly you will reduce their need to avoid it and may therefore take more tax overall. But there again, it might not do, only time will tell.

Yes, they already do. As far as I can see, nobody on this thread is really arguing that they should pay more than they're paying at the moment, merely that they should not be paying less.

Regardless of what's 'fair', we can probably all agree that in a cost of living crisis giving people who earn over 150k a more beneficial tax cut is terrible political optics. Curious to see polling on this in the next few days. Tax cuts have been famously low in voter priority surveys for years. The tories are speaking to a very, very small section of the electorate with this.

But the richest we’re paying high tax and still living a life that was extravagant by ordinary standards. Not having to think about budgeting in any meaningful way. My friend economised by not doing the weekly shop in M&S. Still has the sheets done by a laundry service, still has gardener, cleaning team, nanny, three cars, more food in their cupboards then they can possibly eat and three properties . It nuts to suggest they are “ giving up” anything paying extra tax.

There are some who are not in paid employment who are contributing massively by not requiring e.g. care services for elderly relatives.

It is incorrect to measure social contribution ONLY in terms of income/tax.

The absolute sociopathic mindset it takes to have the gall to say you work 5 months of the year for nothing to pay your tax. Disgusting. People are relying on food banks and people on overbloated 6 figure salaries have twisted their extreme privilege into such a grotesque narrative.

The point is not whether our salary is 'overbloated' (BTW we'd all be paying less absolute tax in that case). Whether we deserve our salaries isn't the point we're making.

40% tax rate = 4.8 months of the year. That's not sociopathic, it's a straight calculation to put a 40% income tax contribution a different way. I'm being honest and saying I believe that's a sufficient income tax contribution.

But you can redistribute your profits before tax?

I mean you could give nearly all if it away if it felt that bad

Again, my statements are not to gain empathy for higher rate tax payers. It is to highlight, that they do pay A LOT of tax already.

As others have mentioned, if you tax too much, then people activley look to avoid it, and tax revenues decrease

No they dont
Many work as employees of companies and pay the full tax amount. There are lots of high earners on full PAYE.

This had sickened me. They are absolute scum.

Again, my statements are not to gain empathy for higher rate tax payers. It is to highlight, that they do pay A LOT of tax already.

People are not arguing that they didn't contribute a lot of tax. They are arguing that it's madness/deeply cynical that the government has now decided they were contributing too much.

Who has made the welfare state as it is?
The conservatives have been in power for 12 years , yet it's still trotted out that a few benefit claimants are playing the system. One or two may well do. The majority do not.
If it's all so easy to live on and claim for it all , then why isn't everyone doing it ?
I , personally, do everything in my power not to claim any money from the state because it's not made easy at all. If I had to I would do , but I wouldn't be fraudulent about it. Most people are not.
Why are the poorest in society demonized so much? Divide and rule, the conservative way.
If so much is being claimed for incorrectly, then why isn't something done about it?

Ask and you shall receive. Snapshot yougov polling:

YouGov
How effective, if at all, do you think the measures the Chancellor has announced will be at growing the British economy?

Very/fairly effective: 19%
Not very/at all effective: 52%

twitter.com/YouGov/status/1573329185136844800

Notable in the breakdown that even tory voters don't think this budget will help.