AIBU to believe rich people should contribute much more?

[marcusian]

A bit tongue in cheek, but given that its almost impossible for poorly paid workers including care workers and nurses to strike, and that the government have given people earning over £100K a massive pay rise, what other ways could the most wealthy be made to pay?

My idea: - a new LUXURIES tax (think 50% VAT) on things ordinary people cant buy, like superyachts, airplanes, £10K+ dining tables, a box at wimbledon, £500+ handbags, £100+ football boots!

AIBU - No - they should pay more and heres my ideas how they should do it!
AIBU - Yes - leave wealthy people alone, its not their fault

Seriously, you're using a an example that happens to 0.00000001% of people to try and make a point?

Back in the real world most people aren't looking for TNBT but to get a well paying career so they can live comfortably. In this respect the odds are well stacked up against them.

The idea is that there'll be more top earners, all of which will be paying a bit less, but the overall tax revenue is higher. Basically, stop the higher earners leaving the country, encourage foreigners to move to the UK, and encourage people not to do aggressive tax avoidance by not over-taxing them in the first place.

A smaller percentage taxed on more high earners brings in more tax than a higher tax on a smaller number of them!

And then they beggar off abroad and UK gets nothing from them.

Well off people pay less tax as a proportion of their income.

equalitytrust.org.uk/news/britains-poorest-households-pay-more-their-income-tax-richest

The bet way is to tax income, with those on the highest income paying the highest marginal rates, AND to tax wealth. One example of how things have been changed and distorted in favour of the wealthy- presently there is no inheritance tax on land- the tories abolished it. So if your parents work hard to build a business, when they die, the value of it is taxed. If they just inherit land and do nothing but collect rent all their lives, it won't get taxed when they die. Also, in the past, unearned income (like interest, share dividends, etc.) was taxed at a higher rate than the income people got via working (this used to be called 'unearned increment'). Now it's the other way round. So much for rewarding hard work, eh?

@iekanda

saying “make the rich people pay more” is as stupid as saying “make the poor people work more”

But a "poor" person working part time, maybe 16-25 hours per week CAN work more to earn more money. No reason at all why most able bodied people can't work full time hours of 35-40 hours per week. We have too many people who aren't working full time hours and claiming benefits when they have an alternative!

Bad I probably was unclear and agree with you

I more meant to those who are posting people shouldn’t earn high amounts - when we lose that tax take who picks it up instead?

You can't make them do anything.

Except that there is no scope to offset the cost of childcare, which is astronomic in the UK, against earned income. Changing that alone would make FT work worthwhile for so many part time staff.

Smokers cost UK society £17billion a year.

Heavy drinkers of alcohol cost the UK £21-53 billion per year (£3.5 billion of that comes out of the NHS budget).

Know who doesn’t pay a lot of tax? Heavy drinkers and heavy smokers.

DH works 18 hr days, and pays more than £100,000 per year in tax. The only public service we use is bin collection and lamp posts.

What about smokers and drinkers pay for the costs of their crap lifestyles, and stop expecting hard working financially successful people to pay for it?

There is IHT on land. However there is business asset relief against IHT for businesses run by the deceased. So you got that wrong. www.gov.uk/business-relief-inheritance-tax

The rate of income tax is exactly the same whether the income is earned or unearned. There's no difference. Perhaps you are thinking about NIC which is only charged on wages and unincorporated business profits, and not on pensions, interest, rents or dividends???

Actually @Willowswave I think you will find that excise and duty and VAT on tobacco and alcohol sales make a large contribution to the exchecquer each year. Sin taxes are increased to discourage consumption, and this has worked quite well on cigarettes but for a long time smokers more than funded the entire NHS.

Ok you sound like you’d like to take a lot on tax and get them back in some way. When they leave to somewhere more favourable what will you do then?

Sure

No, people cant all go and work full time, because childcare costs are through the roof.

A full time minimum wage salary, with NO pension contributions or student loan, is £1378 take home.

How much do you think a full time nursery placement costs?

People do not work part time because they are lazy or feckless but because it is literally unaffordable.

I love how talks on how to ensure those with the most wealth are paying their fair share quickly descends into blaming the poor.

If Directors and CEO and top level management are making high salaries but they have staff who need topping up with benefits, then they are not paying those staff enough.

I will wave their greedy arses goodbye at the airport.

I work for a company that sells luxury goods - tax those more, people stop buying and I lose my job. Multiply that a few thousand times and that’s lots of jobs lost, more people claiming benefits and who pays for that?

I’ve no idea where the middle ground is but it needs to be found.

This !!
my son has £100 boots , I have £5 primark work shoes.

Its been proven by countless data analysis that rich people do not leave anyway. Its baseless scare mongering to allow them to keep hoarding wealth.

I bet. But you’d also then lose the tax they used to pay. Will you pick it up?

Where’s the missing tax coming from

When countries like Portugal court well-off retirees with residency and tax of 7% global income provided you can buy property above a certain threshold, and they do, then you don't have to be incredibly bright or super-wealthy to understand the the appeal. And losing those tax payers in sufficient number would hurt, big time.

👏🏻 couldn't agree more

Its not even that expensive to get a Golden visa in Portugal. An investment of 250,000 euros in property, isn't it?

poorly paid workers including care workers and nurses

I'm at the top of band 7 and with London waiting I get paid £54K. Not as much as a striking train driver but not sure I'd call that poorly paid.

What about footballers, pop stars, TV presenters, Olympic athletes, authors, actors, who've left the UK and are now resident in other countries with lower taxes?

Did you miss the fact that in the 70's most UK authors and artists left the UK due to the ludicrously high income tax they were expected to pay on their incomes which was deemed to be "unearned" as it was mostly made up of royalties etc?