Tax the rich more?

Poll

Should we tax the rich more?

Currently:
- The top 1% pay 27.5% of income tax.
- The top 5% of earners pay 47% of income tax.
- The bottom 44% of earners pay no tax.

How can you say we should tax the rich more, when the burden is already hugely upon the them, and when nearly half of the nation pays none at all?

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Reply 1

eam0ss

God forbid the rich have the pay more tax?!?!? Sure, they may have worked hard for their money, but so may the bottom 44%. It's fair to tax them more because it is not plausible nor fair to tax the poorest 44% of society, especially with the living wage being as low as it is and living costs increasing: we'd be faced with a diabolical situation where working people wouldn't be able to afford to live in their own nation. So whilst the top 1% and top 5% do pay high taxes, to them I doubt it's noticeable since they're already in the highest brackets anyway. My parents are in the top 5% and I don't think high taxes affects our lives adversely whatsoever, as we know our taxes are being spent on services that need them and people who need the money more than we do. If anything, I hope the taxes will increase on the rich so that public services cutbacks could be reduced, and more money pooled into the NHS. Vive la taxing the rich.

Reply 2

DarthRoar

Original post by eam0ss

Sure, they may have worked hard for their money, but so may the bottom 44%.

Absolutely, they've both worked hard so why not share some of the burden.

Original post by eam0ss

It's fair to tax them more because it is not plausible nor fair to tax the poorest 44% of society

Why? They'd only have to pay a fractionally bigger percentage of their income above a protected amount, it's very doable. Taxing a million people £1 raises far more than taxing 1000 people £100.

Reply 3

doiactuallycare

We have to be careful not to tax the rich too much otherwise they will leave. Who will pay the tax then???

We also have to be careful on business tax or corporate tax whatever you call it. If our government makes a deal which may involve paying little or no tax but in return they hire British people/British jobs. Which will make Britain prosperous.

Reply 4

jkls92

Original post by eam0ss

Are you a champagne socialist or naive? Every high earner who pays all his taxes complains that they are too high, no one actually asks to be taxed more. Perhaps your parents don't talk about it with you, but I doubt they happily give away 2/5 of their income, and that they couldn't find ways to spend that money.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

Trinculo

Original post by eam0ss

You don't know that your taxes are being well spent. All the tax your parents pay in their entire lives might go to pay off a tiny fraction of the interest on a PFI hospital that could have been built for a tenth of the cost. Or every penny they ever paid in tax might go on posters for a Health Campaign that never ran, or to pay a consultant with no patients, or on paying welfare to someone who doesn't need it.

This is the essence of being a socialist - you have to be really, really good at spending other people's money, and good at telling other people how happy they should be to pay taxes that you don't have to.

Reply 6

RogerOxon

Original post by eam0ss

It's fair to tax them more because it is not plausible nor fair to tax the poorest 44% of society
Two questions:
1. At what level of taxation will it cease to be fair to tax 'the rich' more?
2. Is it healthy that almost half the electorate pay nothing for policies that they vote for? Surely there'd be a tendency to vote for the best benefits.

Reply 7

EternalLight

Original post by RogerOxon

Two questions:
1. At what level of taxation will it cease to be fair to tax 'the rich' more?
2. Is it healthy that almost half the electorate pay nothing for policies that they vote for? Surely there'd be a tendency to vote for the best benefits.

I think it's insane for people to expect more tax from people who already pay 40% - 45% of their salary in tax. I think corporations should have to pay higher tax.

Reply 8

RogerOxon

Original post by EternalLight

I think it's insane for people to expect more tax from people who already pay 40% - 45% of their salary in tax. I think corporations should have to pay higher tax.

People always want someone else to pay more :smile:

. There's always some impact.

Let's be aware that it's not just income tax that gets taken, but NI, VAT, duty, council tax etc. The tax burden is far higher than a lot of people realise, which is how governments appear to like it.

Reply 9

eam0ss

Original post by usualsuspects

I'm not a champagne socialist; my parents are from working class backgrounds and are purely self made. I'd like to think I'm not a disillusioned privately educated teenager who thinks it rebellious to vote Labour. Not every high earner complains their taxes are too much- that's a sweeping assumption. I'm sure being taxed more (not to the extent where they'd lose 2/5 of their wealth, perhaps) wouldn't affect our lives adversely. The only other ways we'd spend the money would be on school fees for me (but since I'm state educated this is unnecessary) or material superficial things which, when juxtaposed with something like reducing public services cutbacks seem like a fairly low price to pay. I'm admittedly somewhat of an idealist, but I'm also a realist, and taxing the rich slightly more would work for Britain, as it has done for several other countries. It shouldn't be extreme, as this would indeed drive the corporations away. Nonetheless, the pervasive attitude that the rich seem to deserve their money more than the poor helps increase the growing class divide in this country and I don't want to be part of helping it grow.

Reply 10

Elliott05

I think in many cases the bottom 44% are very lazy and scrounge off the generous benefit system of our country. I think that everyone who claims job-seeker allowances should be forced to do work that will help the community.i don't think that the rich should be taxed a lot more because if you take a portion of their income people aren't going to get motivation to access good jobs such as doctors because their salary is being used up and they could get the same salary doing less work.

Reply 11

eam0ss

Original post by Trinculo

Yes admittedly I don't know that our taxes are being well spent. However, how would also taxing the bottom 44% help alleviate this problem? I'm socialist so I'd also have to disagree with your subjective definition. I'm sure I'd be able to think of many, arguably more unflattering ones, for capitalists, presuming that's what you were...

Reply 12

Trinculo

Original post by eam0ss

What you are describing is not a fair society - it's a society where the rich pay for everything and large numbers of people pay for nothing. The rich don't have that much to give, or they may not want to.

In your own scenario - at what point would you want income tax to start? How much should someone be allowed to earn before they start paying income tax?

Reply 13

eam0ss

Original post by Trinculo

I'd say about £11k-12k is a fair amount for someone to earn before paying income tax, if you think about the high costs of living in this country and the corresponding minimum wage.

Reply 14

Trinculo

Original post by eam0ss

I'd say about £11k-12k is a fair amount for someone to earn before paying income tax, if you think about the high costs of living in this country and the corresponding minimum wage.

So you think the current system is fair, then?

Reply 15

Coolerthanapples

This is the biggest problem with democracy. Labour says some **** that sounds good if you have no understanding of economics but too many people have no understanding of economics...

Reply 16

eam0ss

Original post by Trinculo

So you think the current system is fair, then?

It's not fair for the poor but then I often wonder if any system is truly fair for them, since all systems are ultimately flawed. I said £11k-12k because that's honestly not enough money to live decently on in the majority of the UK for anyone, hence why I don't personally believe anyone earning under that should pay income tax.