Quote: Cameron isnt wrong; the top 1% do pay 30% of all income tax and currently pay a higher marginal rate than in any year of New Labour (the 50p rate wasnt introduced until April 2010). But what he doesnt mention is that the 30% stat tells us less about what has happened to the tax system than it does about what has happened to the income system. Over the period in question, the earnings of the rich have risen to previously unimaginable levels. As a recent OECD study showed, the share of income taken by the top 1% of UK earners increased from 7.1% in 1970 to 14.3% in 2005, while the top 0.1% took 5%. Quite simply, the rich are paying more because theyre earning more. Is this really cause for us to thank them? If 11 million low and middle earners receive the pay rise they have been denied since 2003, theyll pay more tax too. Like Boris, Cameron also doesnt mention the inconvenient truth that the poorest continue to pay more tax than the richest. As the ONSrecently found, owing to VAT and other regressive levies, the least well-off households pay 36.6% of their income in tax, while the wealthiest pay 35.5%.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 07:13:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015