Businessmen have been lining up all today to denounce Ed Balls plan to raise tax up to 50p for the very rich. Like a scratched record with the needle stuck in the same old groove they have been dusting off the usual stale arguments. "It's anti-business", "It won't raise any more money", "It's the politics of envy", "Businessmen will leave the country in droves", "It will threaten the recovery." But the underlying message is clear; "We don't want to pay our employees a living wage and we don't want to pay tax either." Not that they pay all that much in the first place having dedicated their efforts to avoid paying 45p with as much vigour as they did when it was 50p. So, if you are earning £150,000 per year how much will it actually cost you? Like everyone else the first £10,000 is tax free so the rate only applies to £140,000. So how much is 5p multiplied by 140,000? £7,000 is the answer to save you reaching for your calculator. £135 per week. That sounds like an awful lot doesn't it? It sounds a lot less, however, when you calculate that £150,000 per year is £2,885 per week which, as it happens, is almost the same as unemployment benefit for a whole year. £150,000 per year is £12,500 per month, coincidentally, about the total yearly income for someone on the minimum wage. And how would someone on £150,000 per year feel if their income was halved simply because they have one bedroom too many? Perhaps we should try an experiment and halve their income because they have a two car garage. And explain this to me. When the Tories reduced the income tax for the rich how come the country wasn't suddenly awash with new businesses? Did the country suddenly experience an inrush of returning businessmen who had quit the country because of Labour's 50p tax rate? If this is the politics of envy then why do the rich begrudge the unemployed a measly £56 per week? Will it not raise any more money because the rich are so greedy and so selfish they will do almost anything to avoid paying tax? If, as they say, this is the "same old Labour tax and spend", then their threadbare excuses are the same old attempt at blackmail we hear every time they have to put their hands in their pockets instead of into the pockets of the poor.
Sunday 26 January 2014
Business Moans About Having To Avoid More Tax.
Businessmen have been lining up all today to denounce Ed Balls plan to raise tax up to 50p for the very rich. Like a scratched record with the needle stuck in the same old groove they have been dusting off the usual stale arguments. "It's anti-business", "It won't raise any more money", "It's the politics of envy", "Businessmen will leave the country in droves", "It will threaten the recovery." But the underlying message is clear; "We don't want to pay our employees a living wage and we don't want to pay tax either." Not that they pay all that much in the first place having dedicated their efforts to avoid paying 45p with as much vigour as they did when it was 50p. So, if you are earning £150,000 per year how much will it actually cost you? Like everyone else the first £10,000 is tax free so the rate only applies to £140,000. So how much is 5p multiplied by 140,000? £7,000 is the answer to save you reaching for your calculator. £135 per week. That sounds like an awful lot doesn't it? It sounds a lot less, however, when you calculate that £150,000 per year is £2,885 per week which, as it happens, is almost the same as unemployment benefit for a whole year. £150,000 per year is £12,500 per month, coincidentally, about the total yearly income for someone on the minimum wage. And how would someone on £150,000 per year feel if their income was halved simply because they have one bedroom too many? Perhaps we should try an experiment and halve their income because they have a two car garage. And explain this to me. When the Tories reduced the income tax for the rich how come the country wasn't suddenly awash with new businesses? Did the country suddenly experience an inrush of returning businessmen who had quit the country because of Labour's 50p tax rate? If this is the politics of envy then why do the rich begrudge the unemployed a measly £56 per week? Will it not raise any more money because the rich are so greedy and so selfish they will do almost anything to avoid paying tax? If, as they say, this is the "same old Labour tax and spend", then their threadbare excuses are the same old attempt at blackmail we hear every time they have to put their hands in their pockets instead of into the pockets of the poor.
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