What do you think of the 5% tax hike for those earning more than £150k - good or bad?

[soapbox]

????

How odd that you think that, MP. People are paid what they are worth in the market economy...

Would anyone who owned a house more than £150K be willing to pay 5% more tax?

almost certainly no...

Yet, we expect people who work damned hard to do that....

I think it's pretty awful that you can do nothing with your life, have kids, never work but expect an income, but if you work hard and earn £150K you can expect to hand half of it over to pay for hand outs...

Seems mad to me.

Anna, anyone who believes in taxation doesn't believe that people deserve 'every penny they earn', surely?

Oh god, the basic lack of economic nouse on these threads staggers me. How many millions of people are there in the country who earn over 150k?

And how many more millions are there who earn much less but still pay tax, even those on very VERY low incomes?

It is, I believe, known as the Pyramid Effect.

The bollocks about 'my poor DH pays for your NHS' gets right on my tits.

No love, the hard-earned tax of millions of bin-men pays for YOUR NHS.

And as for Anna's Bolleaux (dya see what I did there) about high-earners placing less burden because they go private. Well, perhaps a teeny tiny tad. But let's not forget about the PUBLIC SECTOR which trains all those doctors, nurses, teachers and, god yes, even accountants working privately.

Go train your own if you want to and live in a little off-shore enclave where you can all just get along fine and dandy. There's plenty of socially-responsible wealth creators about and socially-minded citizens who believe tax is a good thing.

Reminds me of Paul Daniels threatening to leave the country if Blair got in in '97. Think Jim Davison said the same thing. Wonder how much of the Labour landslide was actually a 'thank God, we've found out a way to get rid of them!' reaction.

If you earn £150k+ you are better off than very nearly everybody else in the country and not in any position to moan about paying an extra 1 per cent.

"The thing will be that with a clever accountant and other tweaks, those on the brink or over the 150K threshold will avoid the surcharge ..."

People who dodge taxes tend to be self employed. There is no way on earth for someone employed to dodge taxes.

It's not good news, is it, this tax hike?

I see the good in the idea about the need for the bubble to burst and all that.But where does that leave the people who will be in negative equity, who have worked bloody hard and continue to do so just to afford their modest house in the 'burbs (that they dont even really like that much but which they moved to so their kids could have a bedroom larger than a thimble,but not much larger- which is the sickener)Obviously I mean me!
I am battling between my old slightly socialist ideals and the part of me that is self self self.

there are quite alot of people who fall in between those 2 categories seriousone

there are quite alot of people who fall in between those 2 categories seriousone

It's no longer a market economy Anna. It is being re-nationalised as we speak.

Heh heh heh. All the Telegraph readers are burying their cash under the bed as we speak.

Morningpaper - i didn't mean he shouldn't pay tax! I just don't like the fact that high earners are all judged as cigar smoking, lazy fatcats that get paid to do nothing.

I believe in taxation and I also believe that people earn what they are worth and I don't see what is at all contradictory in that.

In this household we pay an awful lot of tax. We also deserve what we earn. Although it isn't particularly pleasurable writing the cheques, paying tax is part of being a responsible citizen. What is much more difficult is the goddamn waste that is made of taxpayers' money (but that is another issue).

I don't think anyone earning that much (150k) has anything to worry about the problem would be if it then gets passed down to the 40% bracket being increased.
As is already shown on this thread some people think £50k is a huge amount, where as in all honesty if you are a home owner and have a couple of kids you are just treading water on £50k.

I think that's why Cameron isn't saying much

He is too busy in his back garden with a spade

Yes, WIllself, it is a pyramid: It's a small number of highly paid people paying for lots of other people.

Many of those DO work, and work hard, but (beneath that) there are lots more who sit on their arses (or worse, when THEY work DO expect every penny for them selves but still expect 'their' benefits)

The benefit HAS to stop, in it's current system. We cannot keep funding young girls to have babies they don't really want and cannot afford. Or young men who think it's OK to walk away from responsibilty.

lol TheSeriousOne

Have you bought your Mail today?

Wilf, I know people enjoy seeing people who earn more getting taxed loads, but it remains an ECONOMIC FACT that the higher the tax rates, the less tax gets collected.

Don't let schadenfreude get in the way of economic sense.

Quattro, that's the point I made earlier - I don't object to tax, higher rate, everyone paying a share - or paying 40 or 45% over a certain amount. But it is the employees on PAYE that bear an unequal burden.

I'm amazed at how many people on here don't even understand the maths - under the proposes system you'd ONLY pay 45% on earnings ABOVE £150k.

I know it's been mentioned already but I am getting riled by constant mention of "paying nearly half my income in tax". WHICH IS BOLLEAUX.

Show me the figures seriousone, and I'll bow down to your knowledge.

Evidence, please, that the small numbers of high earners (and not the collective horde of middle income earners) fund the rest?

'It's a small number of highly paid people paying for lots of other people' no its not - its a large number of people paying for their own health care, their kids' education, the police service and so on and a small number of people being supported by the state, most of whom are not abusing the system

No the serious one, it's the middle earners that get hammered every time.
You need to be poor enough to be supported by everyone else or rich enough to not give a stuff to succeed.

It is not bolleaux Perkin.

Really it is not.

You are forgetting NIC which is now uncapped.

I think most people who have posted have recognised that its only a very few people who earn over 150 k Wilfself.
Not everyone can have your obviously massive amounts of 'economic nouse' which is a shame.But if they pay their taxes and vote they can have an opinion surely

It might be an economic fact QC, but I imagine that is more to do with general economic conditions (low general productivity) than the tax rate per se.