Posted by Jake on Saturday, September 14, 2013 with 2 comments | Labels: Article, Big Society, Graphs, HMRC, inequality, taxation
The wealthy and their pals in government and in the media whine that they are over taxed. The fact according to the UK government's Office of National Statistics is the wealthiest fifth of Britons pay a lower rate of tax than the poorest fifth. ONS figures reveal:
- For every hundred pounds of a rich man's income £35.50 is paid in tax.
- For every hundred pounds of a poor man's income £36.60 is paid in tax.
How is this possible? Because these figures include both direct taxes (e.g. income tax) as well as indirect taxes (e.g. VAT).
When hunting for a tax cut the rich lobby only talks about Direct Taxes (income tax, national insurance etc). They conveniently ignore Indirect Taxes (VAT, excise duties etc). Indirect taxes are taxes on spending. The poor spend all they have, while the rich don't - resulting in spending taxes hitting the poor harder.
The wealthy insincerely promise that if they are allowed to get even wealthier they will pay more taxes to pay for schools, health and the like.
The truth is if the government actually did want to receive more taxes to pay for schools, health and the like they would give the poor more money, not the wealthy.
Each Quintile is 20% (a fifth) of all households, from poorest to richest. |
The wealthy insincerely promise that if they are allowed to get even wealthier they will pay more taxes to pay for schools, health and the like.
The truth is if the government actually did want to receive more taxes to pay for schools, health and the like they would give the poor more money, not the wealthy.
Why in heaven's name is this fact not more widely known? Because those who want it known fail to get the message out. And those who don't want it known succeed in keeping a lid on it!
The solution - retweet this post!
Norwich City Council say they are a minimum wage provider but what they don't say is that the companies they deal with have directors earning hundreds of thousands of pounds. What a waste of public money.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't realise this? Every person at the bottom of the income scale is well aware of it. They are acutely aware of rising prices. An extra £5 per week means a lot to them but nothing at all to those at the other end of the income scale.
ReplyDelete