Clegg wants to hit millions earning over £50,000 with higher tax bills

danielanthony · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:26

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...it-millions-earning-50k-higher-tax-bills.html

Yes it is the Daily Fail but seems legit from what Clegg has said over the weekend at the Lib Dem party conference.

This would impact quite a few people on OCUK I think; depending on the details it might be worth booking that plane ticket to Switzerland now to join Spie.

Glaucus · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:28

He's an utter muppet.
Rising of the tax free allowance is great. But usual lib dem going after the well off.
We should be lowering our expenditure even more, not pumping the well off dry.

OpenToSuggestions · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:30

Those who earn in the 40% bracket are completely shafted already for income tax and forking out for their children at University due to no grants.

mmj_uk · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:31

Won't the **** just slap him down again like the bitch he is?

Theophany · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:32

How long until he says 'sorry' for being an arrogant, turd fondling puppet?

£50,500 is not an enormous level of income. Based on the fact that these people are already at a marginal rate of income tax of 40%, it hardly seems fair to clobber them even more.

Judgeneo · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:32

If you go through the PAYE system at that money, your paying more than enough anyway.

OpenToSuggestions · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:34

I think the UK has extremely high levels of taxation.

The answer is to stop spending as much on rubbish and in benefits, not upping the tax further.

minister · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:44

I think he should do away with the limit on NI, do away with £300 day expenses the lords get, those that earn £120k should pay more tax maybe 5% more. Increase capitial gains tax back to 40%, stop defer council tax for 2nd home owners have a land tax. Reduce foreign aid, introduce a foreign own property tax the money gain will be used for house building.

Basher · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:45

minister said:
I think he should do away with the limit on NI, do away with £300 day expenses the lords get, those that earn £120k should pay more tax maybe 5% more. Increase capitial gains tax back to 40%, stop defer council tax for 2nd home owners have a land tax. Reduce foreign aid, introduce a foreign own property tax the money gain will be used for house building.

5% tax for those earning over £120k? Why?

OpenToSuggestions · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:46

minister said:
I think he should do away with the limit on NI, do away with £300 day expenses the lords get, those that earn £120k should pay more tax maybe 5% more. Increase capitial gains tax back to 40%, stop defer council tax for 2nd home owners have a land tax. Reduce foreign aid, introduce a foreign own property tax the money gain will be used for house building.

I believe the answer is in significant benefit cuts. Once people realise they cannot have 5 children by the time they are 22 whilst not working we will see a shift over a few generations back to taking pride in working and feeking shameful for getting knocked up by some chav at 17. It is the attitude problem that we must defeat, the benefit savings will follow.

gettothechopper · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:47

I must admit I was a Clegg fan at the time of the election, and even felt sorry for him when he was instantly marginalised for something I believe was not his fault (the uni fees thing) I do think the daggers where out for him and his party the second they got in (look how all the leading lib dems in the coalition have been sidelined)

HOWEVER

he hasnt done himself any favours, house of lords reform, changing the voting system etc (as much needed both are) are all distractions from the essential buisness (the reason for the coalition) of getting the economy sorted.

This new stuff about tax is just as silly (and seems like an attempt to increase popularity with that old fashioned "its the rich peoples fault") - we should be sorting out the people / companies who are getting away with tiny amounts of tax in offshore loopholes etc before raising any other levels

I think at the end of the day joining the coalition was the right thing, but they have done everything since in the wrong way, coalition doesnt mean you have to give up everything, just agree on some important central issues to get things moving

Biohazard · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:48

OpenToSuggestions said:
I believe the answer is in significant benefit cuts. Once people realise they cannot have 5 children by the time they are 22 whilst not working we will see a shift over a few generations back to taking pride in working and feeking shameful for getting knocked up by some chav at 17. It is the attitude problem that we must defeat, the benefit savings will follow.

Cutting benefits is useless if the economy does not grow and produce jobs. Cut benefits if the alternative is there is fine depending on the structure and policies taken, if there is no sign of it all you end up with is a higher cost in the end. And I mean real jobs, not the work for a pittance idea that came out the other day.

Bear · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:55

Biohazard said:
Cutting benefits is useless if the economy does not grow and produce jobs. Cut benefits if the alternative is there is fine depending on the structure and policies taken, if there is no sign of it all you end up with is a higher cost in the end. And I mean real jobs, not the work for a pittance idea that came out the other day.

I agree. If there are jobs to go for, but you can't punish people when there isn't any other choices.

Tunney · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:56

Glaucus said:
We should be lowering our expenditure even more, not pumping the well off dry.

That's the line trotted out by Conservatives but it goes against all historical data on how to pull a country out of depression. The Great Depression wasn't solved by cuts, it was solved by massive public capital expenditure.

Resident · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:59

As I see it, the problem isn't the set level of tax, it's those that earn silly amounts and use tax loopholes so they end up paying less percentage than someone on minimum wage.

Cameron had a pop at Jimmy Carr not long back, probably more to do with Carr constantly attacking Cameron in his routines but because Carr was using one of these loopholes.

However Cameron said nothing about doing something about these loopholes. My only thought is that either all his Eton buddies are using similar loopholes or he's planning to use them himself after the next election.

danielanthony · 24 Sep 2012 at 13:59

I think he's trying to appeal to his support base of hard left nutters who want everyone to earn the same money regardless of how much or how little they work. If staying PAYE gets worse than it currently is then I'll seriously consider going contracting again; I know guys earning £140k with 85% take home by structuring their taxes appropriately.

I'd imagine a lot of other people in these high paying professions will be forced into doing the same thing (contracting) to avoid these punitive taxes, the government can't really do much about it without penalising all small businesses.

Glaucus · 24 Sep 2012 at 14:01

Tunney said:
That's the line trotted out by Conservatives but it goes against all historical data on how to pull a country out of depression. The Great Depression wasn't solved by cuts, it was solved by massive public capital expenditure.

Except they aren't related.
One. Is. Short term relive, which we are doing. There's been several multi billion dollar projects signed off. In the last year.
What I'm talking about and what clegg is talking about is. The long term cost vs revenue.
These are not the same things. While benefits and health care remain huge we need long term huge revenue.
It's getting to the point (or reached) that we have to decide. Do we all pay far more tax, or do we exclude certain procedures from nhs.
Same with benefits, do we pay more as a collective, or do we revise what benefits is and achieves.

Biohazard · 24 Sep 2012 at 14:05

Resident said:
As I see it, the problem isn't the set level of tax, it's those that earn silly amounts and use tax loopholes so they end up paying less percentage than someone on minimum wage.

Cameron had a pop at Jimmy Carr not long back, probably more to do with Carr constantly attacking Cameron in his routines but because Carr was using one of these loopholes.

However Cameron said nothing about doing something about these loopholes. My only thought is that either all his Eton buddies are using similar loopholes or he's planning to use them himself after the next election.

The treasury minister is apparently quite determined in stamping out evasion and iffy avoidance.

danielanthony · 24 Sep 2012 at 14:06

Glaucus said:
Same with benefits, do we pay more as a collective, or do we revise what benefits is and achieves.

But it's not a collective is it? It's the top 10% of PAYE earners who will be paying more even though they already contribute the most. Those on benefits don't pay into the system, they are effectively a drain on the system. Unfortunately people need to come to terms with the fact that if you have only £10 in your pocket that you raised through taxes you can only spend £10, not keep borrowing money off other countries for things we can't afford.

Bear · 24 Sep 2012 at 14:07

danielanthony said:
I think he's trying to appeal to his support base of hard left nutters who want everyone to earn the same money regardless of how much or how little they work. If staying PAYE gets worse than it currently is then I'll seriously consider going contracting again; I know guys earning £140k with 85% take home by structuring their taxes appropriately.

I'd imagine a lot of other people in these high paying professions will be forced into doing the same thing (contracting) to avoid these punitive taxes, the government can't really do much about it without penalising all small businesses.

They can and they have tried via IR35, I'm sure if they wanted, they could make it such a pain in the backside it could capture a lot more ltd company contractors.

Also I would be suspicious of someone saying they earn £140k and take home 85%. Even with dividends you could only take home around £43k free of income tax. You could put £50k to put into your pension, some expenses and maybe some charitable donations, the odd cap ex purchase, you would still have a chunk left which you couldn't pay yourself else you would pay higher rate tax, and still have to pay corporation tax and VAT.