[Aspiringlawstudent]

One of the most divisive issues of the day is the issue of the amount of tax paid by the rich - so let's see what you think.

Do the rich pay a 'fair' amount of tax?

At just under 200 votes, it's a dead split.

19.39% say far too much.
22.96% say slightly too much.
15.31% say fair.
14.29% say slightly too little.
28.06 say far too much

In total, 42.35% say too much and 42.35% say too little. 15.3% say a fair amount.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
One of the most divisive issues of the day is the issue of the amount of tax paid by the rich - so let's see what you think.

Do the rich pay a 'fair' amount of tax?

Well generally they do pay a fair amount, even though I'm from a working class background,I kind of understand to some extent. When I mean rich, I mean 40k-45k+ in my eyes, they contribute a lot to the economic side of things through their jobs, the amount of money they spend to gives people jobs, etc and they pay quite a large amount of their salaries. They shouldn't be liable for the causes of problems in society like the recent recession and people trying to get them to pay more tax to help themselves out.

But it's fair as long as they aren't using loopholes to get out of paying the majority of their tax because some do :/, really do feel sorry for the rich that do the proper thing then suffer at the hands of the minority that do this when people call for their taxes to be raised.

[planetearth]

Officially the rich pay vast amounts of tax.

In reality tax avoidance is so rife among the rich, it is disgusting.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/th...ustice-network

"In the UK's case £69.9 billion is lost on a yearly basis"

This equates to: "56% of the country's total healthcare spend".

If we were to get that money that is actually owed to us, imagine how much more we'd be able to reduce our deficit and improve the lives of millions.

[cl_steele]

depends what you mean by rich ... someone earning 12k a year will consider someone on 40k a year rich but most people on say 90k a year wouldnt consider themselves rich so its subjective but regardless the real rich people i.e. those earning 6figure saleries usually get out of paying most of their tax anyway
personally im n favour of a flat rate of tax though which applies to everyone equally so meh.

[rich2606]

That certainly looks like too much to me.

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by rich2606)


That certainly looks like too much to me.

I quite agree. It is outrageous.

[Tweaky]

(Original post by rich2606)


That certainly looks like too much to me.

Lucky you have an account to make sure you pay less tax than most people!

and then to answer the question

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/r...hest-avoid-tax. No they pay too less

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by Tweaky)
Lucky you have an account to make sure you pay less tax than most people!

and then to answer the question

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/r...hest-avoid-tax. No they pay too less

That's frankly a libellous assertion.

Do you have any proof?

If not, I'd retract your statement if I were you.

[Tweaky]

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
That's frankly a libellous assertion.

Do you have any proof?

If not, I'd retract your statement if I were you.

I've given just enough proof as you.

[NR09]

(Original post by rich2606)


That certainly looks like too much to me.

I don't understand the share of total tax bit, the percentages add up to more than 100%, so what does a 26.5% share mean?

[Steevee]

(Original post by planetearth)
Officially the rich pay vast amounts of tax.

In reality tax avoidance is so rife among the rich, it is disgusting.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/th...ustice-network

"In the UK's case £69.9 billion is lost on a yearly basis"

This equates to: "56% of the country's total healthcare spend".

If we were to get that money that is actually owed to us, imagine how much more we'd be able to reduce our deficit and improve the lives of millions.

Owed to you?

Even with the rife avoidance, the top 25% pay orders of ten more than the bottom 25%. The top 25% spend the money that keeps the economy going, they make the jobs, they bring in the foreign money. They owe the people at the bottom of the ladder nothing. And frankly your attitude is what is wrong with todays society.

[Wawasan]

Slightly too little. Its dissappointing to see the top rate of tax being lowered to 45p, we really do need to tax the rich more

[internetguru]

(Original post by rich2606)


That certainly looks like too much to me.

That also shows how much more money the top 1% have than the next 9%. These groups both pay the same tax rates yet the contributions of the top 1% double those of the next 9%. I am rather Conservative I agree with less taxation and spending, but if we have to tax someone more we might as well pick on those that will contribute much larger sums to the treasury. Looking at those graphics it is easy to see a 1% increase on taxes for the top 1% would bring in significantly more money than a similar increase to a poorer group.

[Yellow_Watermelon]

(Original post by planetearth)
Officially the rich pay vast amounts of tax.

In reality tax avoidance is so rife among the rich, it is disgusting.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/th...ustice-network

"In the UK's case £69.9 billion is lost on a yearly basis"

This equates to: "56% of the country's total healthcare spend".

If we were to get that money that is actually owed to us, imagine how much more we'd be able to reduce our deficit and improve the lives of millions.

Would be nice to have that lumb sum but really its not possible and shouldn't be talked about like a whole figure so large that claim is not far off music companys and their lost sales from pirates.

sure if everyone paid 100% of their tax with no avoidance you would have a large figure like that.
but they wouldn't and what would likely happen if you tried to close loop holes and force people/companies is that they would simply avoid England. If I was paying a large amount of tax for no good reason and I really don't see a good reason then I would simply leave.
I would have my "base" or "home" abroad and just "holiday" in England the amount of avoided tax for the rich its worth doing this and.. they do

people may hate the rich or well off but they are the ones that spend and invest.

[Stomm]

Well it really is quite simple. Remove all tax avoidance schemes over £10k (and that includes tax on dividend payments and the like. My neighbours are bloody awful tax dodgers, he works as a consultant, gets paid through a company, he gets 'paid' just under the 40% tax bracket and she takes the rest as dividends of the company all for maybe two days work a year doing the 'company's' accounts. And of course the family car is a company car, yet another tax loophole... Overall they pay maybe half the tax we do, yet he earns almost twice that which my wife does... I'm at home with the kids BTW...), and then make tax avoidance above that illegal with a nice long prison sentence attached, and obviously community service after that as well for that matter...

[rich2606]

(Original post by NR09)
I don't understand the share of total tax bit, the percentages add up to more than 100%, so what does a 26.5% share mean?

There's overlap between the groups they have chosen for the graph. The top 1% are also part of the top 10% for example. If you add together the top 50% to the bottom 50%, this is what adds up to 100% as there is no overlap.

[Brit_Miller]

I don't like the British tax scheme and I've always been a low earner. It completely takes away the incentive to better yourself: once you get much further than the average wage, they take so much away. It encourages people to be lazy to avoid taxes, not further themselves to avoid high taxes or use tax avoidance measure when actually doing well.

[prog2djent]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
When I mean rich, I mean 40k-45k+ in my eyes,

.

That sounds a fairly average middle class salary, hardly rich at all.

[like a boss]

The amount of money the middle-class/rich get taxed is outrageous.

Just because they have worked hard to get somewhere in life, doesn't mean we should take most of their money away just because some working class people are bitter and jealous.

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by Stomm)
Well it really is quite simple. Remove all tax avoidance schemes over £10k (and that includes tax on dividend payments and the like. My neighbours are bloody awful tax dodgers, he works as a consultant, gets paid through a company, he gets 'paid' just under the 40% tax bracket and she takes the rest as dividends of the company all for maybe two days work a year doing the 'company's' accounts. And of course the family car is a company car, yet another tax loophole... Overall they pay maybe half the tax we do, yet he earns almost twice that which my wife does... I'm at home with the kids BTW...), and then make tax avoidance above that illegal with a nice long prison sentence attached, and obviously community service after that as well for that matter...

That doesn't really address the issue at hand, however - it's one thing to believe that tax evasion and tax avoidance are bad, but quite another to think that the tax regime at present is fair or not.

Do you think it is?