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Workers will not notice 40pc tax rate, says Nick Clegg
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Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am Posts: 29240 Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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Sun Feb 06, 2011 9:04 pm |
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jonbwfc
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm Posts: 17040
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Logically, probably not. Look at it this way..
You have three 'bands' of income
a) People who didn't fall into the 40% rate bracket before and don't now. They'll see no difference at all from the change. b) People who were in the 40% tax bracket before - they'll notice a small difference because they'll be losing 40% of the amount that the floor of the 40% bracket has gone up by. But given they earn quite a lot of money anyway, the difference probably won't matter that much c) People who weren't in the 40% tax bracket before but are now. They'll be taxed 40% on the bit of their income that ends up in the 40% bracket. So they'll lose a bit of money, possibly.
Some people don't really understand how the UK tax system works.First you have a free allowance, that doesn't get taxed at all. Then you have various bands of money that you get taxed at various rates. If you fall into the 40% bracket, that doesn't mean all your income gets taxed at 40%. It means the amount your income is over the floor of the bracket gets taxed at 40%.
As the basic allowance has gone up, you're actually gaining back a small amount there - the amount the basic allowance has gone up X the basic rate of tax as a fraction. That's offset against the amount more you may get taxed because the 40% floor has fallen. So if you're just over the new 40% floor, you may actually still end up better off. If I had the actual numbers to hand I could work out exactly how much you'd have to earn before you were worse off with the new tax regime that the last one. However I'd imagine the people who are worse off because of it who weren't already paying 40% tax anyway is probably pretty small.
The obvious question you're asking then is - if the amount of people who are going to be worse off due to it is pretty small, surely that means it can't be earning very much more tax for the HMRC? I suspect you're right - the net increase in national tax income may very well be a drop in the ocean of debt the political and banking people have landed us all in. So whats' the point? It appears to me to be a piece of political grandstanding - an attempt to fake the population into believing they're hitting the rich harder than the poor in the 'new age of austerity'. In fact most of the rich actually earn so much money they won't notice the difference anyway, leaving a small group of people in the middle who'll notice it a bit. It's basically a 'three queens trick' with the tax system to make people feel better.
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Sun Feb 06, 2011 9:24 pm |
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Amnesia10
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Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am Posts: 29240 Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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There will be some who find that they are actually taxed at 85% because of the drop in benefits. Though that is for a very small income range. The 40% band starting point has dropped to make up for the higher tax free threshold. Though with inflation taking 5% of everything it will be that they notice more than the extra 10% on a higher salary.
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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Sun Feb 06, 2011 9:36 pm |
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